Etymologically
Log in

excudo

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 14:07. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɛkˈskuː.doː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ekˈskuː.do][1]

Forms

excūdō (present infinitive excūdere, perfect active excūdī, supine excūsum); third conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + cūdō (“to beat, strike”).[2][1][3] De Vaan reconstructs cūdō as Proto-Italic *kūd-e/o- from Proto-Indo-European *kuh₂-d-e/o- (“to hit”), cognate with Lithuanian káuti (“to hit”) and Old Norse hǫggva (“to hew”).[4] Festus, as epitomised by Paul the Deacon, derived it with prōcūdō and incūs (“anvil”) from caedō (“to cut”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,[4][5] whose Menaechmi has a ship saepe excussam malleo, “often hammered into shape with a mallet”; the OLD notes that this form may instead belong to excutiō.[2] The TLL counts it only from Varro, Cicero and Virgil on.[3]

Semantic evolution

Its basic sense is to hammer out, forge, fashion: Virgil foresees that others excudent spirantia mollius aera, “will forge breathing bronzes more gracefully”, and Curtius writes of iron put in the furnaces to be forged.[2][6] Virgil also uses it of striking out a spark from flint, and of bees fashioning wax.[2][7] In Varro, Cicero and Columella it means to hatch chicks or goslings.[2][6] Figuratively it is used of literary work: Cicero promises to hammer out something in the manner of Heraclides, and Tacitus speaks of labouring to hammer out a single book.[2][8] The TLL notes that outside farming it is found almost only in learned writers.[3] In Neo-Latin it means to print, as in Aldus Manutius in 1497 and Erasmus in 1504.[9]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus has a ship hammered into shape, if the form belongs here.[2][4][5]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of hatching chicks.[2][5]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of forging bronze and striking sparks.[2][5]
  • 1497 – Aldus Manutius uses it of printing books.[9]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To hammer out, forge, fashion; figuratively, to compose a written work.[2][6]
  2. To strike out a spark or fire.[2][7]
  3. To hatch out young birds.[2][6]
  4. (New Latin) To print.[9][1]

Word family

  • excūsor

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  8. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  9. ^ a b c Ramminger, Johann, Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700, www.neulatein.de