praeacuo

Forms

praeacuō (present infinitive praeacuere, perfect active praeacuī, supine praeacūtum); third conjugation^[1][2] Ovid shortens the first syllable.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin prae- + acuō (“to sharpen”).^[1][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cato uses it in De Agricultura for grafting: the scion is to be sharpened at its end.^[1][2][3]

Semantic evolution

The TLL finds the finite verb only as a technical term of grafting, in Cato and in Pliny the Elder, who follows him.^[2] The perfect participle praeacūtus is used almost as an adjective, "pointed at the end":^[2][3] Caesar has stakes and beams sharpened at the bottom, Sallust pointed stakes, Ovid a spear point and Pliny a double axe and pointed rocks.^[3][4] Apuleius has the adverb praeacūtē, "very sharply".^[3]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato of sharpening a scion for grafting.^[1][2]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of pointed stakes.^[3][4]
• 86–34 BC – Sallust of pointed stakes.^[3]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of a spear point.^[3][2]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of grafting and of a double axe.^[2][3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To sharpen to a point, make pointed at the front or end.^[1][3][4]
2. (participle praeacūtus) Pointed at the end, sharp.^[3][2][4]

Word family

• praeacūtus
• praeacūtē

References

1. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn