Etymologically
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permuto

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [pɛrˈmuː.toː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [perˈmuː.to][1]

Forms

permūtō (present infinitive permūtāre, perfect active permūtāvī, supine permūtātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin per- (“through, thoroughly”) + mūtō (“to change”).[2][3][1] De Vaan, who dates it from Plautus, treats mūtō under mūtuus (“borrowed, mutual”): both presuppose a noun Proto-Italic *moito- (“object of change”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂moi-to- or from the root Proto-Indo-European *mith₂- (“to exchange”) of mittō.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first, in the Captivi: “you have exchanged names between you”.[2][4][5]

Semantic evolution

Its core is exchange: to give one thing and take another, to sell for a price or buy, and in the passive, of coin, to be received as the equivalent of so many asses.[2][6] In Cicero's business letters it is to remit money by a bill of exchange, or to raise money on one.[2] It is also to change something completely, as Cicero speaks of altering the whole state of the commonwealth, and to switch two things round, as he does with the order of words.[2][6] The TLL finds it from Plautus, Cicero, Lucretius and Varro on, more often in Pliny the Elder, the Digest and above all Boethius.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of exchanging names.[2][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of bills of exchange and of transposing words.[2][5]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of the denarius exchanged for sixteen asses.[2][5]
  • late 14th century – English permute is borrowed through Old French and directly.[7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To exchange, swap; to give up in exchange; to sell; to receive in exchange.[2][6][1]
  2. (finance) To remit money by a bill of exchange; to obtain money on one.[2]
  3. To change completely, transform.[6][8][1]
  4. To transpose, interchange; to reverse an order.[2]

Word family

  • permūtātiō

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 i j k 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. ^ a b 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson