expeditus

Forms

expedītus (feminine expedīta, neuter expedītum, comparative expedītior, superlative expedītissimus); first and second declension^[2]

Etymology

It is the participle of expediō (“to free the feet, disentangle”), used as an adjective.^[2][3][1] The verb is formed from ex- (“out of”) and pēs (“foot”); de Vaan explains its meaning from compedēs (“fetters”), so “to free from fetters”.^[1][4] He traces the noun for foot to Proto-Indo-European *pōd-s, cognate with Ancient Greek πούς (poús) and Sanskrit पाद् (pā́t).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero, writing from his province: expedītō exercitū ita noctū iter fēcī, “I marched by night with my army unencumbered”.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The word is at home in the army: troops expedītī are free of baggage and ready for action, and used as a noun expedītus is a light-armed soldier.^[2][1][6] Cicero also uses it of a traveller without luggage: Clodius met Milo expedītus, in equō, with no carriage and no wife.^[2] From freedom of movement came agile (Varro), quick and ready in mind or speech (Cicero), free from difficulty and easy, of tasks and of roads (Caesar), and ready to hand, with in expedītō “in readiness”.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “well-appointed, light-armed”.^[6]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of an army without baggage, of a ready speaker and of an easy task.^[2][5]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of agile limbs.^[2][5]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of an easier road and of light-armed troops.^[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (of troops) Unencumbered, light-armed, ready for action.^[2][6]
2. Travelling light.^[2]
3. agile, nimble; quick, ready (in mind).^[2]
4. Free from difficulty, easy;^[2] (of roads) easy to pass.^[2]
5. Ready to hand;^[2] in expedītō, in readiness.^[2]

Noun

1. A light-armed soldier.^[1]

Related words

• expediō
• expedītiō
• pēs

Usage notes

Late Latin also had a fourth-declension noun expedītus (genitive expedītūs), from the same verb, meaning a military expedition, like expedītiō.^[7][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften