Etymologically
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recepto

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [rɛˈkɛp.toː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [reˈt͡ʃɛp.to][1]

Forms

receptō (present infinitive receptāre, perfect active receptāvī, supine receptātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin recipiō (“to take back, receive”) + -tō, a frequentative formed on the participle receptus2.[2][3][4] That verb is a compound of capiō (“to take”), which Wiktionary traces to Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“to grasp”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Ennius has it first, in the Annals, of the hollow vault of the sky taking something back.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short note that it is mostly poetic and post-Augustan, and absent from Cicero and Caesar.[4] It is to take back or recover: Lucretius has a body slowly coming back to its senses and taking back its breath, Virgil a spear pulled back out of the bones, and Lucan nature taking all things back into her lap.[2][4] With sē it is to withdraw: Terence has withdrawing into the house, Virgil the star of Saturn retiring, and Persius a shore receding into a bay.[2][5] It is also to receive often or habitually: Terence has a woman receiving the speaker's son, Livy merchants admitted, Tacitus debtors sheltered, and Apuleius a girl protected in a house.[2][4][5] Church Latin has “receive, draw back, retire”.[6]

Timeline

  • 204–169 BC – Ennius, of the sky taking something back.[2][7]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence, of withdrawing and of receiving a visitor.[2][7]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius, of recovering breath.[2][7]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus, of sheltering debtors.[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To take back, recover, pull back.[2][4][1]
  2. (reflexive) To withdraw, retire; of places, to recede.[2][5]
  3. To receive often, admit, shelter.[2][4][5]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de