Etymologically
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fodico

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈfɔ.dɪ.koː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈfɔː.di.ko][1]

Forms

fodicō (present infinitive fodicāre, perfect active fodicāvī, supine fodicātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin fodiō (“to dig, pierce”) + -icō.[2][3][1] The grammarian Nonius defines it as the same as fodiō, and Priscian sets it beside vellicō from vellō and similar pairs.[3] The base goes back to Proto-Italic *foþ-i- and Proto-Indo-European *bʰodʰ-i- (“to poke, dig”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Plautus, figuratively: in the Bacchides cares animum fodicant, “prick the mind”, and in the Casina a speaker says stimulus ego nunc sum tibi; fodicō corculum, “now I am your goad;[5][3] I prick your little heart”.[5][3]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short call it rare but classical.[5] Cicero keeps the figurative use for things we think evil that prick us so that we cannot hide or forget them.[5] The literal sense, to prod or stab, is in Horace's advice to buy a slave who will prompt names and nudge one's left side,[5][2] and in Ammianus Marcellinus, who has lateribus fodicātīs, “with their sides pierced”.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of cares that prick the mind.[5][3][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of troubles that prick us.[5][6]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of nudging someone in the side.[5][6]
  • c. 390 AD – Ammianus Marcellinus uses it of pierced sides.[5][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. to prod, jog (in the side); to stab, pierce.[2][5]
  2. (figurative) to prick, trouble (the mind).[5][3]

References

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