excaeco

Forms

excaecō (present infinitive excaecāre, perfect active excaecāvī, supine excaecātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + caecō (“to blind”),^[2][1] from ex- and the adjective caecus (“blind”), beside caecō and obcaecō.^[3] De Vaan derives caecus from Proto-Italic *kaiko- and Proto-Indo-European *keh₂i-ko- (“one-eyed”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first attested in Cicero's Academica (Lucullus), meaning “to make blind, deprive of sight”: num ergo is excaecat nos aut orbat sensibus?^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short call it rare.^[5] Besides blinding people, Pliny the Elder and Columella use it of removing the eyes or buds of a plant,^[2][5] Ovid and Celsus of blocking or stopping up a channel, as mud blocks the veins of water,^[2][5] and Petronius and Pliny of dulling or dimming something.^[2]

The manuscripts often spell it ⟨excec-⟩.^[3] In Ecclesiastical Latin it also means “to blind mentally”.^[6]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of blinding.^[2][5][7]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of mud stopping up a channel.^[2][7]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of removing the buds of a vine.^[2][7]
• before 66 AD – Petronius uses it of dimming beauty.^[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To blind, deprive of sight.^[2][5]
2. To remove the eyes or buds of (a plant).^[2][5]
3. To block or stop up (a channel or stream).^[2][5]
4. To dull or dim.^[2]
5. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To blind mentally.^[6]

Word family

• excaecator

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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