Etymologically
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exoptatus

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Forms

exoptātus (feminine exoptāta, neuter exoptātum, comparative exoptātior, superlative exoptātissimus); first/second-declension adjective[1][2]

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the past participle from Latin exoptō (“to long for”).[1][3][2] That verb is a compound of ex- and optō (“to choose, wish”),[1][4] which goes back to Proto-Italic *opeje- (“to choose, grab”); de Vaan, following Vine, explains it as a frequentative built on an iterative Proto-Indo-European *h₁op-eie-, and finds the related verb in Umbrian upetu (“to select”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler and the TLL record it from Plautus on,[6][7] of people who are longed for: salve, exoptate gnate mi, “greetings, my longed-for son”.[7][3]

Semantic evolution

Plautus also has the superlative, o mi ere exoptatissime, “o my most longed-for master”.[7] Terence construes it with the dative (te, Antiphila, maxime animo exoptatam meo).[7][3] Cicero uses it of things as well as people: welcome news (nuntius), nihil exoptatius adventu meo, “nothing more longed for than my arrival”, and exoptatissima gratulatio.[3] The glossaries explain it as desideratum.[7] Sulpicius Severus still has the superlative of a man.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a longed-for son, with the superlative.[7][6]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence construes it with the dative.[7][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of welcome news and of his own return.[3][6]
  • c. 363–c. 420 AD – Sulpicius Severus uses the superlative of a man.[7][6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Longed-for, much-desired, welcome.[1][3][2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  3. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  4. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
  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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften