exopto

Forms

exoptō (present infinitive exoptāre, perfect active exoptāvī, supine exoptātum); first conjugation^[1] Valerius Maximus has the spelling exobtō.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + optō (“to choose, wish”).^[3][1][2] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of optō, which he traces to Proto-Italic *opeje- (“to choose, grab”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₁op-eie- (“to choose, grab”), comparing Umbrian upetu (“let him select”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[4] who asks in the Bacchides whether a woman longed for another man instead.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It is to wish or long for something greatly, with an accusative, an infinitive or ut: Cicero says that people most long for what most of them think finest, and Livy that the arrival of the Samnites was longed for.^[5][3] It can be to wish something on someone, as when Cicero tells Piso that everyone hates him and wishes him a plague.^[5] The participle exoptātus means longed-for or welcome, often in Plautus and Terence.^[5] Church Latin glosses it to wish eagerly, to hope for.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of longing and of a welcome return.^[5][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of wishing someone a plague.^[5][7]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of a longed-for arrival.^[5][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To long for, desire greatly, hanker after.^[3][5][6][1]
2. To wish something on someone.^[5]

Word family

• exoptābilis
• perexoptātus

Related words

• optō
• exoptātus

References

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