praeacuo
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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
- To sharpen to a point, make pointed at the front or end.[1][3][4]
- (participle praeacūtus) Pointed at the end, sharp.[3][2][4]
Word family
- praeacūtus
- praeacūtē
References
- ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn