Etymologically
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iocor

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈjɔ.kɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈjɔː.kor][1]

Forms

iocor (present infinitive iocārī, perfect active iocātus sum); first conjugation, deponent[1] An active iocō, iocāre is also found.[2]

Etymology

It is a denominative verb from Latin iocus (“joke”) + -ō.[3][1][2] De Vaan traces iocus to Proto-Italic *joko- and Proto-Indo-European *yok-o- (“word, utterance”).[4] He compares Umbrian iuka (“words, prayers”), Welsh iaith (“language”) and Old High German jehan (“to express, utter”), and takes Lithuanian juõkas (“laughter, joke”) for a borrowing from German.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Plautus on: in the Menaechmi someone often jokes with a character in this way.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to jest, to joke, and with an object to say in jest: Cicero writes in a letter that he had said something in jest.[5] Terence has someone who thinks a woman is joking, and Cicero distinguishes two kinds of joking.[5] Grammarians list it among deponents, and an active form ⟨iocō⟩ is also found.[2] The TLL lists the Romance descendants Italian giocare, Old Occitan jogar and Spanish jugar.[2] Church Latin glosses it to jest, joke.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.[2][7]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence of a woman thought to be joking.[5][7]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of kinds of joking.[5][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To jest, joke; with an object, to say in jest.[3][5][6][1]
  2. To play.[1]

Word family

  • iocābundus
  • iocātiō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b 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 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de