liceor

Forms

liceor (present infinitive licērī, perfect active licitus sum); second conjugation, deponent^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *lik-ē- (“to be available, have the value of”), the stem de Vaan reconstructs for licet (“it is allowed”), and is the deponent beside liceō (“to be for sale, fetch a price”);^[2][3][4][1] the deponent is explained as “to make oneself available”, hence to offer or bid.^[2] He finds no certain cognates outside Italic.^[2] Wiktionary calls the origin uncertain.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus uses it in the Stichus, where a man with jokes to sell calls on people to bid.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It means to bid at an auction: Cicero has a man bidding in the speech for Caecina and bidding by raising a finger in the Verrines, and Caesar a man against whom no one dares to bid.^[4] Transitively it is to bid for something, as Cicero writes of Scapula's heirs bidding for gardens, and Persius has bidding a clipped hundred-as piece for a hundred Greeks.^[4][3] Pliny the Elder uses it figuratively, of greedy eyes that set a price on a married woman.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of bidding at a sale.^[3][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of bidding at auctions.^[3][4][5]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar, of bidding against someone.^[4][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder, of appraising with the eyes.^[4][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To make a bid at an auction.^[3][4][1]
2. (transitive) To bid for, make an offer for.^[3][4][1]
3. (figurative) To appraise, value.^[4][1]

Word family

• licitor
• polliceor

Related words

• liceō
• licet

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de