Etymologically
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percontatio

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Forms

percontātiō f (genitive percontātiōnis); third declension[1] It is also spelled percunctātiō.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin percontor (“to inquire”) + -tiō.[2][1][4] The OLD derives the verb from per- and contus (“pole”),[2] as if “to sound with a pole”;[1] Wiktionary calls this one of several uncertain suggestions, beside cunctor and Proto-Indo-European *preḱ- (“to ask”).[1]

The ancients argued over it too: Festus reports that Verrius Flaccus took it from the sailors' habit of testing the depth of the water with a pole and wrote it with ⟨o⟩, while Festus himself preferred ⟨u⟩, from asking about everything.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It appears first in the Rhetorica ad Herennium,[4][3] where the speaker is to use questioning to ask whether the opponents knew what the law said.[4]

Semantic evolution

The TLL notes that it belongs to prose only, from the Rhetorica ad Herennium and Cicero on.[4] It meant the action of inquiry and also a particular question: Caesar could learn nothing more of Britain by inquiries, and in Livy Gracchus replies to such a question.[2][5][6] Quintilian uses it of the varied questioning of witnesses.[2] Cicero names it as a figure of speech,[5][7] and Pliny the Elder pairs it with conversation.[5]

British medieval writers kept it, often in the spelling ⟨percunctatio⟩, and some distinguished it from interrogātiō: a percunctātiō allows many answers, an interrogātiō only yes or no.[8]

Timeline

  • 86/82 BC – The Rhetorica ad Herennium uses it of questioning an opponent.[4][3]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it and names it as a figure of speech.[5][3]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar says inquiries brought him no more news of Britain.[5][6][3]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of a particular question put to a commander.[2][3]
  • c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of the questioning of witnesses.[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The action of questioning, inquiry, interrogation.[2][5]
  2. A particular question or line of questioning.[2][7]
  3. (rhetoric) A question as a figure of speech.[5][7][6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  8. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press