incedo

Forms

incēdō (present infinitive incēdere, perfect active incessī, supine incessum); third conjugation^[1] Plautus has the shortened perfect incestī.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin in- + cēdō (“to go, give way”).^[3][4][1] De Vaan follows Lubotsky in tracing cēdō to Proto-Italic *kesd-e/o- (“to go away”) and Proto-Indo-European *ḱyesdʰ- (“to drive away; to withdraw”), cognate with Sanskrit सेधति (sedhati, “drives away”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Livius Andronicus.^[5] Plautus has Megadōrus … eccum incēdit ā forō, “here comes Megadorus from the forum”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Incēdere is “to come on the scene, step up” (Plautus), and above all “to walk, step”, especially slowly or with dignity (Virgil: Juno, quae dīvum incēdō rēgīna, “I who walk as queen of the gods”).^[3][2][1] Of soldiers it is “to march, advance” (Sallust), of a coastline “to extend”, and with in “to enter”.^[3][1] Of events and feelings it is “to arise, come over” someone (Caesar: magnus incesserat timor sagittārum, “great fear of the arrows had set in”), though most such examples could also belong to incessō.^[3]

Church Latin glosses it “to go, walk, enter, go about, approach”.^[6]

Timeline

• 280/260–before 200 BC – Livius Andronicus uses it.^[5][7]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: eccum incēdit ā forō.^[3][7]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar: magnus incesserat timor.^[3][7]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil: dīvum incēdō rēgīna.^[3][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To come on, step up.^[3]
2. To walk, step, stride (especially with dignity).^[3][2][1][6]
3. (military) To march, advance.^[3][1]
4. To extend; to enter.^[3][1][6]
5. To arise; to come over (someone), befall.^[3][1]

Word family

• incessō
• incessus

Related words

• cēdō
• accēdō

References

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