ideo

Forms

ideō (not comparable)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from id, the neuter accusative of is, and eō, its ablative: “this for this”.^[2][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus,^[4] whose slave boasts nūllum perdidī, ideō quia numquam ūllum habuī, “I never lost a patron, because I never had one”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

With a following causal clause (quia, quod, ut) ideō means “for the reason (that)”, and on its own “for that reason, therefore”.^[2][3][1] Lewis and Short note that it is especially frequent in Quintilian.^[3] Ideōque is “and so”.^[1] Church Latin glosses it “for that reason, therefore”.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: ideō quia numquam ūllum habuī.^[2][4]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it often.^[3][4]

Meanings

Adverb

1. (with quia, quod, ut) For the reason (that).^[2][3]
2. For that reason, therefore.^[2][3][1][5]
3. ideōque, and so.^[1]

Word family

• ideōque

Related words

• idcircō
• ergō
• igitur
• itaque

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson