Etymologically
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factito

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈfak.tɪ.toː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈfak.ti.to][1]

Forms

factitō (present infinitive factitāre, perfect active factitāvī, supine factitātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin faciō (“to do, make”) + -itō, a frequentative.[2][3][1] Lewis & Short take it from factō.[4] De Vaan traces faciō to Proto-Italic *fak-i- and to Proto-Indo-European *dhh₁-k- (“to make”), from the root *dheh₁- (“to put”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first citation is Plautus' Epidicus, where a speaker says it would be folly to blame someone for what he himself used to do in youth.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

It means to do something often or habitually:[2][4] Cicero writes of joining words in a way that not even the old Greeks practised, and of things often done among our ancestors.[4] It also means to practise as a profession: Cicero has Lycurgus making a profession of accusation at Athens, Quintilian medicine, Suetonius the collecting of money, Gellius the carrying of loads and Tacitus informing.[2][4] Of things it is to make habitually, as Pliny the Elder of garlands once made from melilot.[2] With a predicate it means to make someone something repeatedly: Cicero has a man whom another always openly named his heir.[2][4]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of what one did in youth.[2][4]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of practising accusation.[2][4]
  • c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian of practising medicine.[4]
  • c. 165 AD – Gellius of carrying loads.[4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To do often or habitually, be in the habit of doing.[2][4][1]
  2. To make a profession of, practise (a trade).[2][4][1]
  3. To make habitually;[2][4] (with predicate) to make or declare repeatedly.[2][4]

Word family

  • factitatio
  • factitator

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill