Etymologically
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emico

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈeː.mɪ.koː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈɛː.mi.ko][1]

Forms

ēmicō (present infinitive ēmicāre, perfect active ēmicuī or ēmicāvī, supine ēmicātum); first conjugation, no passive[1] The perfect is ēmicuī;[2][3][4] Quintilian condemns ēmicāvī as misplaced pedantry.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- (“out”) + micō (“to dart, flash”).[2][4][1] De Vaan traces micō to Proto-Italic *mikaje- and Proto-Indo-European *mikH-(e)ie- (“to blink”): the basic Latin meaning is to dart or move quickly to and fro, which Slavic words share beside “blink” and “see”.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,[5] who uses it in the Aulularia of a heart that begins to jump in the breast.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to dart or spring forth, as Virgil has a band of young men leaping onto the Italian shore, and of missiles to shoot out and of liquids to spurt.[2][3] Columella uses it of shoots springing from a vine, and Lucretius of the heat of flame flashing out.[2] Figuratively it is to stand out, as Horace speaks of a fine word that flashes out from a poem.[2] Lewis & Short note that it is rare before the Augustan period and absent from Cicero and Caesar.[3] Church Latin glosses it to shine forth.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a jumping heart.[2][7]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius of flashing flame and spurting liquid.[2][7]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of men leaping ashore.[2][7]
  • c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian discusses its perfect.[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To dart forth, spring out; of missiles, to shoot out; of liquids, to spurt; of the heart, to jump.[2][3][1]
  2. Of plants, to shoot forth.[2]
  3. Of fire, to flash forth; figuratively, to stand out, be conspicuous.[2][3][6][1]

Word family

  • emicatim
  • ēmicātiō
  • superemico

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de