Etymologically
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pensito

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈpẽː.sɪ.toː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈpɛn.si.to][1]

Forms

pēnsitō (present infinitive pēnsitāre, perfect active pēnsitāvī, supine pēnsitātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin pēnsō (“to weigh”) + -itō, a frequentative.[2][1][3] Gellius lists it among the frequentatives and derives it through the participle pēnsus from pendō (“to weigh out, pay”).[3] De Vaan traces that verb to Proto-Italic *pend-e/o- (“to hang”); the sense went from hanging up to weighing out and paying.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it three times in Cicero,[3] who uses it of paying taxes: the peoples who pay us revenues.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

In Cicero it is to pay, and of money to bring in interest.[2] An inscription has it of weighing in scales, of the Syrian goddess weighing life and rights,[2] and Pliny the Elder of weighing a life in an even balance.[5] Its commonest sense is to weigh in the mind, ponder:[2][5] Livy has plans that great minds must weigh, Suetonius Augustus pondering most carefully, and Tacitus Tiberius long considering whether to act.[2][5] Gellius uses it for comparing.[5] The TLL finds it a little more often from the 2nd century AD.[3] Church Latin has pay, weigh, compensate and ponder.[6]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, of paying taxes.[2][7]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, of pondering plans.[2][7]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus, of Tiberius pondering.[5][7]
  • c. 165 AD – Gellius, of comparing.[5][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To weigh in scales.[2][5][1]
  2. To pay (taxes); of money, to bring in.[2][5][1]
  3. To weigh in the mind, ponder, consider; to compare.[2][5][1]

Word family

  • pēnsitātiō
  • pensitātor

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d 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. ^ 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