inscendo

Forms

īnscendō (present infinitive īnscendere, perfect active īnscendī, supine īnscensum); third conjugation, no passive^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“in, on”) + scandō (“to climb”).^[2][1][3] The verb scandō goes back to Proto-Italic *skand-e/o- (“to ascend”) and Proto-Indo-European *skend- (“to jump up, ascend”).^[4]

Manuscripts sometimes spell it with ⟨-ind-⟩.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on,^[3][5] who has īnscendam aliquam in arborem, “I'll climb up some tree”.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

In Plautus it is already used for getting into a chariot and, without an object, for going on board a ship.^[2][6][7] Cato uses it with suprā, Cicero of mounting a burning pyre,^[7] and Suetonius of mounting a horse;^[7] Gellius says of Bucephalus that he let no one but the king mount him.^[7] Apuleius uses it of male animals covering the female.^[2][7]

Döderlein counts it, with ascendere and cōnscendere, among the verbs for mounting a height in general, without the effort that scandō implies.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for climbing a tree, mounting a chariot and embarking.^[2][5]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it with suprā.^[7][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of mounting a pyre.^[7][5]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses it of mounting a horse.^[7][5]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it of animals mating.^[2][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To climb up on or into.^[2][7]
2. To mount (a horse, a chariot); to go on board, embark.^[2][7][6]
3. (of male animals) To mount, cover.^[2][7]

Word family

• inscensiō
• inscensus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper