exaedifico

Forms

exaedificō (present infinitive exaedificāre, perfect active exaedificāvī, supine exaedificātum); first conjugation^[1] It is also written exedificō.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + aedificō (“to build”).^[4][2][1] The simple verb is formed from aedēs (“temple; house”) with ⟨-ficō⟩, “make”;^[4] de Vaan traces that noun to Proto-Italic *aiþ- (“fireplace”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₂(e)idʰ- (“burning”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on,^[4][2] who uses it in the Mostellaria of a house that has been built very well indeed (exaedificātās insānum bene).^[4]

Semantic evolution

Its sense is to carry a building through to completion, to build up or erect: Cicero speaks of a house that his correspondent had already measured out and built in his mind, Caesar of a town that Labienus had built at his own expense, and Sallust of houses and villas.^[4][6] Livy, Curtius and Pliny the Elder use it of camps, ships and roofs.^[4][6] Figuratively it means to complete a work: Cicero asks someone not to mind finishing the work he has begun, and Plautus jokes about someone “completing” the laziness he has begun.^[4][6] Plautus also plays on aedēs with “to turn out of the house” (exaedificāvisset mē ex hīs aedibus).^[4][6]

Ecclesiastical and medieval Latin kept the sense “to build, erect”, for instance of churches.^[7][3]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of building a house and, jokingly, for turning someone out.^[4][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it literally and figuratively.^[4][6][8]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of a town built at someone's expense.^[4][8]
• 86–34 BC – Sallust uses it of houses and villas.^[4][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To finish building, build up, construct, erect.^[4][6][7]
2. (figurative) To complete (a work).^[4][6]
3. (humorous) To turn out of doors.^[4][6]

Word family

• exaedificātiō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ 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 f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de