macto

Forms

mactō (present infinitive mactāre, perfect active mactāvī, supine mactātum); first conjugation^[1] Ennius, Afranius and Pomponius have the old perfect subjunctive mactāssint.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from mactus (“honoured, blessed”) with the verbal suffix -ō.^[2][1] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *makto- (“honoured”) and tentatively follows Driessen in deriving it from Proto-Indo-European *mh₂ḱ- (“to make long”), “made bigger”, which he finds slightly better than a link with magnus (“big”).^[4] Lewis and Short compare Sanskrit मह् (mah-, “to magnify”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first example in the OLD is Ennius' Annals: “then Livius returns, honoured with a great triumph”.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It is first to honour or endow, as Ennius' victor, to honour a god with offerings, and to honour an occasion, as Cicero's festival honoured with milk.^[2] Ironically it is to afflict or punish, as the curse in Ennius, “may the gods and goddesses afflict him with great harm”.^[2][3] With the dative it is to offer to a god, as Cato's cake offered to Jupiter, then to slay a victim in sacrifice, as Varro's pig, and simply to kill, as Accius' “would the archer goddess had slain me with her shafts!”.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “immolate, sacrifice, slaughter” and “reward, honor, glorify”; in medieval Latin it also means to break or to kill.^[6][1]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius of honouring and of afflicting.^[2][5]
• 234–149 BC – Cato of offering to Jupiter.^[2][5]
• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius of killing.^[2][5]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of sacrificing a pig.^[2][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To honour, glorify; to honour (a god) with offerings.^[2][1][6]
2. (with ablative) To afflict, punish (with).^[2][1]
3. To offer in sacrifice; to immolate, slaughter.^[2][1][6]
4. To kill, slay.^[2][1]

Word family

• mactābilis
• mactātiō
• mactātor
• mactātus

Related words

• mactus
• immolō
• sacrificō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson