emo

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈɛ.moː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈɛː.mo]^[1]

Forms

emō (present infinitive emere, perfect active ēmī, supine ēmptum or ēmtum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *eme/o- (“to take”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₁em-e/o- (“to take”).^[2][1] The first sense “to take” survived in old Latin, according to Paul the Deacon's Festus, and in compounds such as adimō “to take away”, dēmō and sūmō.^[3][4][5] Cognate with Umbrian emantur (“may be bought”), Oscan emmens (“they took”), Lithuanian imù (“I take”) and Old Irish airfo-emim (“seize”).^[2][3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus uses it of buying.^[2][3] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it was to buy or purchase, as a maid for a wife in Terence or olives in Cato, and in auctions to buy at a price.^[3][8] It was also to win someone over or bribe, and to gain something immaterial at a cost, often of suffering.^[3] Döderlein says emere is buying to supply oneself, while mercor is buying as a trade.^[9]

In medieval Latin it was to buy, and also to redeem.^[10] Its compounds gave English words: eximō “to take out” gave exempt and, through exemplum, example, and redimō gave redeem.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[2][7]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of buying olives.^[3][7]
• late 14th century – English example and exempt are recorded, from exemplum and exemptus.^[11]
• early 15th century – English redeem is recorded, from redimere.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. (Old Latin) To take.^[3][5]
2. To buy, purchase.^[3][4]
3. To win over; to bribe.^[3]
4. To gain (at a cost).^[3]
5. (Medieval Latin) To redeem.^[10]

Word family

• adimō
• coëmō
• dēmō
• dirimō
• emāx
• ēmptīcius
• ēmptiō
• ēmptitō
• emptīuus
• ēmptor

Related words

• perimō
• permitiēs
• pōmum
• pōmus
• sūmō
• English example
• English exempt
• English redeem

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
10. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
11. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com