praecerpo

Pronunciation

• Classical: [prae̯ˈkɛr.poː]^[1]
• Ecclesiastical: [preˈt͡ʃɛr.po]^[1]

Forms

praecerpō (present infinitive praecerpere, perfect active praecerpsī, supine praecerptum); third conjugation^[1] The OLD also records the unweakened form praecarpō, quoted from Oppius.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin prae- + carpō (“to pluck, pick”).^[2][4][5][1] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *karp- for carpō and derives it from Proto-Indo-European *kerp-e/o- (“to pick, pluck”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first citations are in Cicero's Verrines, “I do not pluck in advance the fruit of your duty” (nōn praecerpō frūctum officī tuī), and in Catullus, of a reaper cropping the thick ears of grain.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is to pluck or cut off, especially the end of something: Pliny the Elder advises muzzling oxen when ploughing among trees so that they do not crop the tender shoots, and Statius uses it of cutting off a lion's mane.^[2][7] Gellius uses it of excerpting passages from Aristotle's books of problems.^[2][7] It also means to take an early crop or reap early: Oppius, quoted by Macrobius, writes that some citrons are picked early while others are still ripening.^[2][3] To reap before someone else gives figurative uses, as in Cicero's line and in Ovid's “who allowed you to reap our harvest first?”.^[2][4] From this it came to mean to take the bloom off something before its time and so spoil it: Tacitus writes of praise plucked, as it were, in the blade or flower, which never ripens into fruit, and Quintilian and Pliny the Younger of the charm of novelty being spent too early.^[2][5] Minucius Felix speaks of food from which the first portion had been taken beforehand at sacrifices.^[8][4] Lewis and Short call it poetic and post-Augustan in prose.^[3]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it figuratively, of plucking the fruit of another's duty.^[2][9]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it of a reaper cropping ears of grain.^[2][9]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of oxen cropping shoots.^[2][9]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of praise spent too early.^[2][9]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it of making excerpts from a book.^[2][9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To pluck or cut off the end of something; to crop.^[2][7]
2. To excerpt passages from a book.^[2][7]
3. To take an early crop of, reap early; to reap before others.^[2][8]
4. (figurative) To take the bloom off something before its time, spoil, forestall.^[2][5]

Word family

• praecerptus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c d e Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de