increpo

Forms

increpō (present infinitive increpāre, perfect active increpuī or increpāvī, supine increpitum or increpātum); first conjugation^[1] Besides increpuī and increpitum the forms increpāvī and increpātus occur.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin in- + crepō (“to rattle, crack”).^[3][1] De Vaan traces crepō to Proto-Italic *krepa- and Proto-Indo-European *ḱrep- (“to rattle, crackle”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan gives Plautus as its first author.^[4] In the Amphitruo a man trembles: ita mē increpuit Iuppiter, “so did Jupiter thunder at me”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Intransitively it is to make a sharp, loud noise, to rattle, clash or roar, as Cicero's discus that rang out, and figuratively of alarms that suddenly sound.^[3] Transitively it is to make something sound, and to fall upon someone noisily.^[3] Plautus already has it of loud reproaches, and its most common sense is to rebuke or chide, to protest against faults, and to say something scornfully.^[3][2] Virgil and other poets use it of urging on.^[1]

Church Latin glosses it “rebuke, reprove, blame, chide, scold, rattle”.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of thunder and of reproaches.^[4][3][6]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of scornful words.^[3][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a ringing discus and of sudden alarms.^[3][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To make a loud noise, rattle, clash, roar, (of alarms) to break out.^[3][1][5]
2. (transitive) To make to sound; to fall upon noisily.^[3]
3. To rebuke, chide, scold.^[3][1][5]
4. To protest against, inveigh against; to say scornfully.^[3][1]
5. (poetic) To urge on, exhort.^[1]

Word family

• increpātiō

Related words

• crepō
• crepitus
• concrepō
• discrepō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de