eneco

Forms

ēnecō (present infinitive ēnecāre, perfect active ēnecuī, supine ēnectum); first conjugation^[1] Also ēnicō, the regular spelling in Plautus and Terence and found in Varro; from Laberius on, the forms in enec- are usually restored.^[2][3] The perfect is ēnecāvī in Plautus, ēnecuī in Seneca and Suetonius.^[2] The participle is usually ēnectus, and Pliny the Elder has ēnecātus.^[2][4] Plautus has the old future perfect ēnicāssō.^[2][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- (“out, completely”) + necō (“to kill”).^[2][1] De Vaan lists it, beside the simple verb, among the derivatives of nex (“death, violent death”), which goes back to Proto-Italic *nek- and Proto-Indo-European *neḱ-s (“death”).^[5] He suggests that the participle ⟨ēnectus⟩ could mean that the verb in ⟨-āre⟩ arose in compounds, above all this one, replacing an older verb, though the simple verb could also be made from the noun.^[5] Cognate with Sanskrit नश्यति (náśyati, “to perish, disappear”) and Ancient Greek νεκρός (nekrós, “dead person”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[5] who uses it of the infant who strangles both snakes, puer ambō anguīs ēnicat.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is to kill, often slowly, by strangling, starving or overwork:^[2][7] Varro has a hawk killing birds, Horace an ox worn out by ploughing,^[2] and Tacitus the vapour of a scalding bath.^[2][6] Columella and Pliny the Elder use it of frost or shade killing crops and shoots.^[2] In comedy it is hyperbolic, to be the death of someone: a character complains that his spleen is killing him, another that someone's silence kills him, and in Terence someone would wear a man out with questions.^[2][6] Livy uses ēnectī of men half dead from hunger, cold and dirt.^[2][7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of killing and of tormenting.^[2][8]
• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of wearing someone out with questions.^[2][8]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses ēnectī of starving, freezing men.^[2][8]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of a death in a scalding bath.^[2][6][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To kill, slay, especially slowly (by strangling, starving, exhaustion).^[2][7]
2. (of plants) To kill, stifle (by frost or shade).^[2][7]
3. (hyperbolically) To exhaust, wear out; to torment, plague (of pain, hunger or a tiresome person).^[2][6]

Related words

• necō
• nex
• interneciō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de