excavo

Forms

excavō (present infinitive excavāre, perfect active excavāvī, supine excavātum); first conjugation^[1] Manuscripts of Columella and Pliny the Elder also have the spelling excabō.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin ex- + cavō (“to hollow out”).^[3][2][1] cavō is from cavus (“hollow”), which goes back to Proto-Italic *kawo- and Proto-Indo-European *ḱouH-ó- (“hollow”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Varro on,^[2] who uses it of pens dug out for ducks.^[3] Cicero, in the Verrines, has a ladle hollowed out of one very large gem.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

Its main sense is to make hollow, to scoop or hollow out: Vitruvius mentions places in the hills of Baiae hollowed out for sweating baths.^[3] It also meant to make something by digging out, or to form an object by hollowing it out of a material.^[3] Pliny the Elder uses it of hollowing out a cavity, river banks and the earth, and the Vulgate says lapides excavant aquae, “the waters wear away the stones”.^[5] The Priapea have it in an obscene sense.^[5]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it means to dig out.^[6] English excavate was formed in the 1590s from its past participle.^[7]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of pens dug out for ducks.^[3][2][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero describes a ladle hollowed out of a single gem.^[3][5][8]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of places hollowed out for sweating baths.^[3][8]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of hollowing out banks and the earth.^[5][8]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it of water wearing away stones.^[5][8]
• 1590s – English forms excavate from its past participle.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make hollow, to scoop or hollow out; to wear away.^[3][5]
2. To make by excavation, to dig out.^[3][6]
3. (with ex) To form by hollowing out of a material: trulla ex ūnā gemmā excavāta, “a ladle hollowed out of one gem” (Cicero).^[3]

Related words

• cavus
• caverna
• English excavate

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de