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oppeto

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word oppeto

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
204–169 BC, Ennius
Ultimate origin
Latin (petō)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin peto
Latin expeto
Latin petitor
Latin competitor
Latin oppeto
Latin suppeto
Latin suppetiae

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈɔp.pɛ.toː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈɔp.pe.to][1]

Forms

oppetō (present infinitive oppetere, perfect active oppetīvī or oppetiī, supine oppetītum); third conjugation[1] It is also spelled obpetō.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin ob- + petō (“to make for, seek”).[2][1][4] De Vaan traces petō to Proto-Italic *pet-e/o- and connects it with a root meaning to fly, assuming a shift from flying up towards something to trying to get it.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short's first example is from a tragedy of Ennius, quoted by Cicero: to meet an evil plague.[3][6] Plautus has the same phrase.[3]

Semantic evolution

It is to go to meet something, usually an evil, and above all death: with ⟨mortem⟩ it means to meet one's death.[3][2] The OLD stresses a premature death or fate.[2] Used without an object, understood as death, it means to perish: Virgil writes of the Mycenaean leader who fell at his own threshold by the hand of his wife.[2] Lewis & Short give obeō, occumbō and intereō as synonyms.[3] Church Latin glosses it to encounter or meet with.[7]

Timeline

  • 204–169 BC – Ennius of meeting an evil plague.[3][6]
  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus has the same phrase.[3][6]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it without an object, of a leader who perished.[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To go to meet, encounter, usually an evil; with mortem, to meet one's death.[2][3][1][7]
  2. Without an object, to meet one's end, perish, often before one's time.[2][1]

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
Cite this entry

“Oppeto.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/oppeto. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·