examino
Pronunciation
Forms
exāminō (present infinitive exāmināre, perfect active exāmināvī, supine exāminātum); first conjugation[1]
Etymology
It is from exāmen “swarm; tongue of a balance” with the verb suffix -ō.[2][1][3]
Earliest recorded meaning
The OLD's earliest citations are from Caesar, of weighing, and Cicero, of balancing.[2] Köbler dates Cicero 81–43 BC and Caesar about 50 BC.[4]
Semantic evolution
In Columella it meant of bees to swarm.[2][5] In Caesar it meant to weigh, as his iron bars of a fixed weight used as money, and in Cicero to balance, put in equilibrium.[2][5] In Quintilian it meant to consider critically, examine.[2]
In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant to test, try, weigh, refine, purify, ponder, consider.[6] In the swarming sense it survives in Spanish enjambrar and Portuguese enxamear, and it was borrowed into French examiner, and English examine came about 1300, first of questioning someone's competence, exāminātiō gave English examination.[1][3]
Timeline
- 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of balancing.[2][4]
- c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of weighing.[2][4]
- c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of examining.[2][4]
- c. 1300 – English examine is recorded.[3]
Meanings
Verb
Word family
- exāminātiō
- examinator
- examinatrix
- inexaminatus
- exāminātus
Related words
- exāmen
- exigō
- English examine
- English examination
References
- ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
- ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
- ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson