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exseco

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word exseco

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 250–184 BC, Plautus
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European (*sekh₁-ie/o-)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin seco
Latin sector
English sector
Latin insector
Latin consector
Latin exseco
Latin sectio
English section
Latin reseco

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈɛks.sɛ.koː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈɛks.se.ko][1]

Forms

exsecō (present infinitive exsecāre, perfect active exsecuī, supine exsectum); first conjugation[1] It is also spelled execō, exsicō and exicō.[2][3] Plautus and Cato have -icō,[2] and Cato the future perfect exsecāveris.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + secō (“to cut”).[2][1][4] De Vaan traces secō to Proto-Italic *sekaje/o- and Proto-Indo-European *sekh₁-ie/o- (“to cut off”), comparing Umbrian prusekatu (“to cut out (the entrails)”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first quotations are in Plautus: in the Rudens a man is told to go into the marsh and cut reeds while it is fine, and a fragment speaks of cutting limbs with a saw.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to cut out or off, remove by cutting: Cicero has cutting away diseased parts, cutting out a plague like a tumour of the state, and cutting out a tongue.[3] It is also to make a cut in.[2] It means to castrate: Cicero recounts the myth that Caelus was castrated by his son Saturn.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of cutting reeds.[2][6]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato.[2][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of cutting out diseased parts and of castration.[2][3][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To cut out or off, remove by cutting.[2][3][1]
  2. To make a cut in; to make (an opening) by cutting.[2]
  3. To castrate, geld.[2][1]

Word family

  • exsecatio
  • exsectiō
  • exsector

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry

“Exseco.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/exseco. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·