incutio

Forms

incutiō (present infinitive incutere, perfect active incussī, supine incussum); third (-iō variant) conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- + quatiō (“to shake, strike”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan traces ⟨quatiō⟩ to Proto-Italic *kwat-i-, with a possible root ⟨*ku(o)t-⟩ seen in Old High German scutten (“to shake”); because of its awkward ablaut it may be a non-Indo-European word.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Ennius on;^[3] his Annals have someone striking anger into the Romans.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its physical sense is “to strike or dash against”, as Livy's soldiers knocking down enemies with their shields and shoulders; it is also to hurl missiles, as in Tacitus, and to deal blows.^[2][5] Lucretius uses it of dust shaken onto the body, and Statius of a helmet shaken threateningly.^[2] Its commonest use is “to instil, strike into”, above all of fear and anxiety; in Plautus a cloak brings on pallor, and Horace speaks of ignorance of the laws causing trouble.^[2] Cicero uses it only in this figurative sense.^[5]

Church Latin glosses it “strike, inflict”.^[6]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius of anger struck into the Romans.^[2][3][7]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a cloak bringing on pallor.^[2][7]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of dust shaken onto the body.^[2][7]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of knocking down enemies.^[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To strike, knock or dash against; to hurl missiles; to inflict blows.^[2][5][1][6]
2. To shake onto; to shake threateningly.^[2]
3. To strike into, instil, inspire (fear, anger and the like); to bring on a condition.^[2][1]

Word family

• incussor
• incussus

Related words

• quatiō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b 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