Etymologically
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obtego

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈɔp.tɛ.ɡoː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈɔb.te.ɡo][1]

Forms

obtegō (present infinitive obtegere, perfect active obtēxī, supine obtēctum); third conjugation[1] Also spelled opt-;[2][3][4] Plautus has optigō.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin ob- + tegō (“to cover”).[2][1][4] De Vaan traces tegō to Proto-Italic *teg-e/o- (“to cover”) and Proto-Indo-European *(s)teg-e/o- (“to cover”).[5] He compares Old Irish teg (“house”), Ancient Greek στέγω (stégō, “to keep off, keep in”), Lithuanian stógas (“roof”) and Old High German dah (“roof”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it in the old forms ⟨optigō⟩ and ⟨optegō⟩, and asks in the Trinummus whether someone believes he can cover up his errors this way.[2][4][6]

Semantic evolution

Cato uses it of covering a graft with ox-tongue so that rain does not soak into the bark.[2][3] It is to cover for protection: Cicero tells of a man who shielded himself with the bodies of his slaves and freedmen.[2] It is also to hide from view, as a constellation is hidden, and to conceal abstract things such as faults.[2] Accius uses it of covering the river Scamander with blood.[2] Döderlein uses it to explain occulō and occultō, verbs of hiding something material, as opposed to cēlō, keeping something secret.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of covering up errors.[2][6]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato of covering a graft.[2][6]
  • 170–c. 90 BC – Accius of covering a river with blood.[2][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of shielding oneself with other people.[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To cover over for protection; to shield, defend.[2][3][8][1]
  2. To hide from view, conceal, screen; to cover up abstract things.[2][1]
  3. To cover the surface of something, overspread.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
  8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson