Etymologically
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impedio

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ɪmˈpɛ.di.oː][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [imˈpɛː.di.o][1]

Forms

impediō (present infinitive impedīre, perfect active impedīvī or impediī, supine impedītum); fourth conjugation[1] It is also spelled inpediō;[2][3] Lucretius splits it in tmesis (inque pedītur).[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from in- (“in”) and pēs (“foot”) (stem ⟨ped-⟩) with the verb suffix ⟨-iō⟩, “to shackle the feet”, like its opposite expediō.[2][3][1][4] Compare Ancient Greek ἐμποδίζω (empodízō, “to hinder”).[1] pēs goes back to Proto-Italic *pōd- and Proto-Indo-European *pṓds (“foot”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first citation is Plautus: ipsus illīc sēsē iam impedīvit in plagās, “he has now entangled himself in the nets”.[2]

Semantic evolution

Impedīre is “to hobble, entangle, bind”, and so “to hinder, obstruct” movement or progress (Cicero: mē … lictōrēs impediunt, “my lictors hamper me”; an eye disease quae impediat scrīptiōnem meam, “that hinders my writing”).[2][3][1] It is “to prevent” someone from acting and “to obstruct” an action or process (Cicero of a man who obstructed the case of the tax-farmers with foolish questions), and intransitively with a dative “to be a hindrance”.[2][1] Wiktionary adds “to embarrass”.[1]

Church Latin glosses it “impede, entangle, prevent”.[6] English impede (c. 1600) is from it or a back-formation from impediment.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: sēsē iam impedīvit in plagās.[2][7]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius: inque pedītur.[2][7]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero: lictōrēs impediunt.[2][7]
  • c. 1600 – English impede.[4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To entangle, hobble, bind.[2][3][6]
  2. To hinder, impede, obstruct.[2][3][1][6]
  3. To prevent (someone from acting).[2][1][6]
  4. To be a hindrance (with a dative).[2]
  5. To embarrass.[1]

Word family

  • compediō
  • expediō
  • impedicō
  • praepediō
  • pēs
  • compēs
  • English impede

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  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 d Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de