recino

Forms

recinō (present infinitive recinere); third conjugation, no perfect or supine stems^[1] A by-form recanō appears in Pliny the Elder.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin re- (“back, again”) + canō (“to sing”),^[2][3][1] with the vowel weakened as in other compounds of the verb.^[1] De Vaan traces canō to Proto-Indo-European *kh2n-e- (“to sing”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero uses it in the Brutus of something that resounds and echoes in the voices of Roman orators.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

Horace uses it most: the echo gives back a name, a bird repeats its ominous cry, young and old repeat the maxims dictated to them, and the poet sings Latona on the lyre in answer to another's song.^[2][5][7] Varro uses it of a herald calling out the results of an election.^[2]

Pliny the Elder uses it of undoing something by charms, as when people believe that snakes can be charmed back,^[2] and Apuleius of recanting to placate an angry Love.^[2] Glossaries explain it as “they sing”.^[3]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a sound that echoes.^[5][8]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of calling out results.^[2][8]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of echoing and of singing in answer.^[2][8]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of undoing by charms.^[2][8]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it of recanting.^[2][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To sing back, echo, repeat; to resound.^[2][5]
2. To sing in answer.^[2][7]
3. To call out repeatedly.^[2]
4. To undo by charms.^[2]
5. To recant.^[2]

Related words

• canō

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 m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de