mutuor

Forms

mūtuor (present infinitive mūtuārī, perfect active mūtuātus sum); first conjugation, deponent^[1] An active form mūtuō, -āre also occurs, first in Caecilius.^[2] Vitruvius and Pliny the Elder use the perfect participle in a passive sense.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin mūtuus (“borrowed, lent”) + -ō.^[2][1] De Vaan traces mūtuus, like mūtō (“to change”), to a noun Proto-Italic *moito- (“(object of) change”), for which he considers Proto-Indo-European *h₂moi-to- and a form from the root of mittō.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Cato.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It is to borrow money or goods: Caesar has borrowing money, Cicero borrowing from Caelius, Tacitus a borrowed house.^[2][4][5] Transferred, it is to borrow words or ideas: Cicero speaks of coining a new word or borrowing one from a similar thing, and says that virtue took its name from men; in Livy rash counsel is borrowed from love.^[2] Lewis & Short call it classical, the opposite of lending.^[4] Church Latin glosses it to borrow.^[6]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato.^[3][7]
• 230/220–168 BC – Caecilius with the active form.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of borrowing money and words.^[2][4][7]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of counsel borrowed from love.^[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To borrow (money, goods).^[2][4][1][6]
2. To borrow (words, ideas), take over, derive.^[2][4]

Related words

• mūtuus
• mūtō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de