Etymologically
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patesco

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [paˈtɛs.koː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [paˈtɛs.ko][1]

Forms

patēscō (present infinitive patēscere, perfect active patuī); third conjugation, no passive, no supine stem[1] It is also spelled patīscō.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin pateō (“to be open”) + -scō, the inchoative of the verb.[4][1][3] De Vaan explains pateō as an Italic stative built on ⟨*pat-⟩, the full grade that arose beside the nasal present of pandō “to spread”, which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *pt-n(é)-h₂- (“to spread”); he compares Ancient Greek πίτνημι (pítnēmi, “to spread out, open”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Varro,[5] who uses it of seed pods that open.[4]

Semantic evolution

It is to open, of a door or space, a plant or the eyes: Tibullus has a door that does not open, overcome by words, and Virgil long halls laid open.[4][2] Of a road or region it is to become open or accessible, and to lie exposed: in Ovid the land lies open to plunder.[4] It is to come into view or become known: in Virgil the goddess is revealed by her walk.[4] Of territory it is to spread out, as Livy's plain that widens a little, and of troops to deploy.[4] Figuratively Cicero writes of a way back to favour opening up, and of generosity extending more widely in a province.[4] Lewis & Short find it mostly in poetry and post-Augustan prose, and not in Cicero.[2] Church Latin glosses it to lie open or extended.[6]

Timeline

  • 116–27 BC – Varro of opening seed pods.[4][5][7]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of a way opening and of generosity extending.[4][7]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of halls laid open and a goddess revealed.[4][2][7]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of a widening plain.[4][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To open, be opened; of plants or the eyes, to open.[4][2][1]
  2. Of a road or region, to become open or accessible; to lie exposed.[4][1]
  3. To come into view; to become clear or known, be revealed.[4][1]
  4. To spread out, extend; of troops, to deploy.[4][2][1][6]

Word family

  • repatescō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ 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
  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