Etymologically
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liceo

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈlɪ.ke.oː][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈliː.t͡ʃe.o][1]

Forms

liceō (present infinitive licēre, perfect active licuī, supine licitum); second conjugation, no passive[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *likē- (“to be available, to have the value of”), the verb also behind the impersonal licet (“it is permitted”) and the deponent liceor (“to bid”).[2][3] De Vaan takes “to be available, be offered for sale, be worth” as the original meaning; there are no certain cognates outside Italic.[2][1] The OLD compares Lithuanian lĩkstu (“to make an agreement”) and the TLL Latvian likt (“to agree on a price”); the TLL also cites Oscan likitud (“let it be permitted”), which de Vaan considers borrowed from or modelled on Latin.[3][4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on, of goods at an auction: omnia vēnībunt, quīquī licēbunt, praesentī pecūniā “everything will be sold, whatever it fetches, for cash down”.[2][5][4]

Semantic evolution

Liceō is used with an ablative or genitive of price: “to be for sale, to fetch (a price), to be valued at”.[3][5] Cicero asks how much the gardens of Drusus were valued at (quantī licuisse), and Horace says that Laevinus was never valued at more than a penny.[5][4] From the time after Augustus it is also used of the seller, “to ask (a price), to offer for sale at”.[5][6]

Priscian notes that the oldest writers used personal forms such as liceō beside the impersonal licet.[4] Stelten gives the general senses “to be valued, to cost”.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of goods sold at auction.[5][4][8]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero: quantī licuisse tū scrībis.[5][4][8]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace: ūnīus assis nōn umquam pretiō plūris licuisse.[5][4][8]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of the seller asking a price.[5][8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To be for sale; to fetch (a price), to be valued at.[3][5]
  2. (of the seller) To ask (a price), to offer at.[5][6]
  3. To be valued, esteemed; to cost.[7]

Word family

  • liceor
  • licitor

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  3. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de