Etymologically
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inflecto

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ĩːˈfɫɛk.toː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [iɱˈflɛk.to][1]

Forms

īnflectō (present infinitive īnflectere, perfect active īnflexī, supine īnflexum); third conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“in”) + flectō (“to bend”).[2][3][1] De Vaan reconstructs flectō as Proto-Italic *flek-t-, perhaps with a suffix ⟨-t-⟩ on the model of plectō (“to plait”); the root has no clear cognates elsewhere in Indo-European.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus.[4] The OLD's first literal example is from Cicero, who contrasts a stick bent on purpose with one that grew crooked.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to bend or curve inwards, and in the passive to become bent: Caesar has iron that had bent, Cicero a bay curving round towards a city, and Pliny the Elder mountains curving like a theatre.[2][5] It is to turn something aside or alter a course, and figuratively to bend a person from his purpose: Cicero speaks of civil law that cannot be bent by favour.[2] In rhetoric it is to modify a word, and to modulate the voice, as to a pitiful tone.[2] Grammarians used it of marking a syllable with the circumflex accent.[1]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.[4][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of a bent stick and of the modulated voice.[2][6]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar of a spear bending in a shield.[2][6]
  • early 15th century – English inflect is borrowed from it.[7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To bend or curve inwards; in the passive, to become bent; to tilt.[2][5][1]
  2. To turn aside, change the course of.[2][1]
  3. To turn a person from his purpose, influence.[2][1]
  4. To adapt, modify, alter; to modulate the voice.[2][1]
  5. (grammar) To mark or pronounce with a circumflex accent.[1]

Word family

  • īnflexiō
  • inflexus

References

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