Etymologically
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ilicet

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈiː.lɪ.kɛt][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈiː.li.t͡ʃet][1]

Forms

īlicet (not comparable)[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin īre (“to go”) + licet (“it is permitted”), literally “one may go”.[2][3][1] The OLD also allows the imperative ⟨ī⟩ as the first part.[4] It is formed like scīlicet and vidēlicet.[2][4] De Vaan traces licet to Proto-Italic *lik-ē- (“to be available, have the value of”) and finds no certain cognates of the root outside Italic.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler record it from Plautus.[2][5] In the Mostellaria it answers the words “then I'll go in without a guide”: ilicet, off you go.[4]

Semantic evolution

Ancient commentators explain it as a formula of dismissal: Donatus says the herald pronounced it to dismiss the judges when the business was over, and Servius, citing Varro, that it was the last word spoken at a funeral.[3][4] In comedy it is an exclamation of dismissal, with a dative in the phrase ilicet malam crucem, to hell with someone, as Plautus says of the parasite's art,[4][3] and an exclamation of dismay, that's the end, it's all over, as in Plautus' ilicet: mandata eri perierunt, “it's all up: my master's orders are lost”.[4][3]

Through the idea of hurrying off it came to mean at once, straight away;[3] Lewis & Short find this in Afranius and in the Augustan poets.[3] Virgil uses it so in the Aeneid, as ilicet obruimur numero, “at once we are overwhelmed by numbers”,[4][3] and so do Statius and Valerius Flaccus.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, as a word of dismissal and of dismay.[4][5]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence, “it's all over”.[4][5]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil, “at once”.[4][3][5]
  • c. 45–96 AD – Statius, “at once”.[4][5]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. You may go, off with you (a formula of dismissal); with a dative, to hell with.[4][3][1]
  2. It's all over, it's all up (expressing dismay).[4][3][1]
  3. At once, straightaway, immediately.[4][3][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de