implico

Forms

implicō (present infinitive implicāre, perfect active implicāvī, supine implicātum); first conjugation^[1] The perfect is implicāvī or implicuī, and the participle implicātus or implicitus;^[2][3] Lewis and Short find the forms in -uī, -itum twice in Cicero and often from Augustus' time on.^[2][3] It is also spelled inplicō.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin in- + plicō (“to fold”), matching Ancient Greek ἐμπλέκω (emplékō, “to entwine”).^[2][1][4][5] De Vaan takes ⟨plicō⟩ as a back-formation from compound verbs in ⟨-plicō⟩, which go back to Proto-Indo-European *pleḱ- (“to plait”), the root of plectō (“to plait”) and Ancient Greek πλέκω (plékō, “to braid”).^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Plautus' Cistellaria the leaf-roller grub wraps itself up in a vine leaf.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

It is to fold or twine something about itself or another thing: Virgil's Apollo binds his flowing hair with gold, Catullus' ivy clasps a tree, and little Iulus twines himself round his father's hand.^[2] It is to interlace, as Varro's cloth woven of many flowers, and to entangle, as Sallust's horsemen throwing a battle line into disorder.^[2] In the passive it is to be closely bound up with someone, by age (Cicero's orator who lived long enough to meet speakers of many generations) or friendship.^[2] It is also to involve a person in hard circumstances.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “entangle, envelop, implicate”.^[8] English imply (late 14th century), implicate and employ (both early 15th century) come from it, imply and employ through Old French.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a grub wrapped in a leaf.^[2][7]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of interlaced flowers.^[2][7]
• 86–34 BC – Sallust of entangling a battle line.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of close association.^[2][7]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of entwining hair with gold.^[2][7]
• late 14th century – English imply.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To fold, entwine, wrap (around); to embrace.^[2][1]
2. To interlace, intertwine.^[2]
3. To entangle; to hem in.^[2][1][8]
4. (passive) To be closely connected (with).^[2][1]
5. To involve, implicate.^[2][1][8]

Word family

• implicamentum
• implicātiō
• implicatura
• implicito
• implicātus
• impliciscor
• implicitus

Related words

• plicō
• plectō
• explicō
• English imply
• English employ

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b 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. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson