obtingo

Forms

obtingō (present infinitive obtingere, perfect active obtigī); third conjugation, no supine stem^[1] It is also spelled optingō.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin ob- + tangō (“to touch”), with the vowel weakened in the compound.^[2][3][1] De Vaan traces tangō to Proto-Indo-European *th₂-n-g- (“to touch”), cognate with Ancient Greek τεταγών (tetagṓn, “having seized”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Plautus it already means to fall to one's lot, as in the Bacchides (no one is not envied when good fortune falls to them), and in the Casina of the lot that will fall to him.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short quote a Plautus fragment, preserved by Nonius, where it means to touch or strike (a heady smell struck the nose), though Nonius also gives the line with attigit.^[5] Its usual sense is to fall to someone's lot or share: Cicero has the water-supply post falling to a man by lot and a quaestor allotted to him.^[5] Of events it means to happen or befall, though Lewis & Short note that accidere, contingere and ēvenīre are more common in that sense.^[5] Döderlein groups it with contingere and obvenīre as verbs used mostly of fortunate occurrences.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of what falls to one's lot.^[5][6]
• 190–159 BC – Terence, of something turning out as one wished.^[5][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of a post allotted to a man.^[5][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To fall to one's lot, come to one as a share (for good or ill).^[2][5][1]
2. To happen, befall, occur.^[5][1]
3. To touch, strike (once, in a fragment of Plautus).^[5][1]

Related words

• attingō
• contingō
• pertingō
• tangō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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 f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d 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