Etymologically
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exopto

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɛkˈsɔp.toː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [eɡˈzɔp.to][1]

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

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