Etymologically
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impetro

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈɪm.pɛ.troː][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈim.pe.tro][1]

Forms

impetrō (present infinitive impetrāre, perfect active impetrāvī, supine impetrātum); first conjugation[1] It is also spelled inpetrō.[2][3] Plautus has the future infinitive impetrāssere and the passive infinitive impetrārier.[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin in- (“in”) + patrō (“to accomplish”), like perpetrō.[2][4][1] De Vaan lists patrō among the derivatives of pater (“father”), which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ph₂tḗr (“father”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has quod mē ōrābis impetrābis, “what you ask of me you shall obtain”.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Impetrāre is “to obtain by request or entreaty”, to get what one asks for, with an accusative or with ut (Plautus: quod mē mīserās, afferō omne impetrātum, “I bring everything you sent me for, granted”).[2][3][1] Of things it is “to succeed in gaining”, as Cicero writes that reason should achieve what time will achieve anyway.[2]

Church Latin glosses it “to obtain, gain, effect, accomplish”.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: quod mē ōrābis impetrābis.[2][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of reason achieving what time would.[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To obtain (by request or entreaty), get one's request.[2][3][1][7]
  2. To succeed in gaining, achieve, accomplish.[2][1][7]

Word family

  • impetrābilis
  • impetrātiō
  • impetratiuus
  • impetrator
  • impetratus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson