Etymologically
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mitto

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈmɪt.toː][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈmit.to][1]

Forms

mittō (present infinitive mittere, perfect active mīsī, supine missum); third conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *meit-e/o-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *m(e)ith₂- (“to exchange, remove”).[2][1] The meaning would have moved from “to exchange” to “to give, bestow”, which is still seen in an Old Latin form mitat, and then to “to let go, send”.[2][1] The double ⟨tt⟩ is often explained from an older *mītere by the so-called littera rule, which de Vaan finds possible but unprovable.[2][1] The OLD starts instead from *smeito, citing the gloss cosmittere, but de Vaan thinks that single form too unreliable to build on.[3][2]

Cognate with South Picene meitims (“monument”),[2][1] and further with Gothic 𐌹𐌽𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌳𐌾𐌰𐌽 (inmaidjan, “to change”).[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Livius Andronicus onwards.[2] The OLD's first sense is to release or let go, as in Ennius' animam de corpore mitto, “I let my soul go from my body”.[3]

Semantic evolution

Its early senses are those of letting go: to release a person or an animal, to set free, to drop a subject (mitte!, “never mind!”), and to pass over in silence.[3] It meant to let fly a missile, to throw down, to give off smells or images, and to utter words.[3]

The commonest sense became to send people, letters and goods, and poets said that lands “send” their products, as Virgil's India mittit ebur, “India sends ivory”.[3] In the Romance languages it came to mean “to put”: French mettre, Italian mettere, Spanish and Portuguese meter.[1]

Timeline

  • 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it for letting go.[3][4]
  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for sending people.[3][4]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato uses its derivative missile, “missile”.[2][4]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil writes that India “sends” ivory.[3][4]
  • 1590s – English takes mission from missio, “a sending”.[5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To let go, release; to set free.[3][1]
  2. To drop, give up; to pass over, say nothing of.[3][1]
  3. To throw, hurl, let fly (a missile); to throw down.[3][1]
  4. To give off, emit; to utter (sounds, words).[3][1]
  5. To stretch out, put (the hand).[3][1]
  6. To send, dispatch (people, letters, goods).[3][6]
  7. (of lands) To produce, export.[3][1]
  8. To put (into a state).[3]

Word family

  • admittō
  • āmittō
  • antemittō
  • circummittō
  • committō
  • dēmittō
  • dīmittō
  • ēmittō
  • immittō
  • intermittō
  • intrōmittō
  • missa

Usage notes

Döderlein contrasts mittere, the general word for sending, with legare, sending someone as an official representative.[7] Of its compounds, amittere is to lose something against one's will, dimittere to let it go after use, and omittere to pass it by on purpose.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 h i j k l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper