Etymologically
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recito

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈrɛ.kɪ.toː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈrɛː.t͡ʃi.to][1]

Forms

recitō (present infinitive recitāre, perfect active recitāvī, supine recitātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin re- + citō (“to set in motion, call out”).[2][1] citō is the frequentative of cieō (“to set in motion”), which it replaced in classical Latin.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first citation is Plautus: postquam recitāstī quod erat cērae crēditum, “after you read out what had been entrusted to the wax tablet”.[2]

Semantic evolution

Recitāre is “to read out, recite aloud”, especially in public;[2][4][1] L&S call it, in the best prose, the technical term for reading out a document, a deposition or a report in public proceedings (Cicero: alicuius testimōnium recitāre).[2][4][1] Sallust has a letter of Adherbal read out in the senate.[2] From Horace on it is “to recite” one's own literary works before an audience, as at the fashionable public readings.[2][1] Wiktionary adds “to appoint, name in writing”.[1]

Church Latin glosses it “recite”.[5] English recite (early 15th century, first in legal use) comes from it, partly through Old French.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: postquam recitāstī.[2][7]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of reading out evidence.[4][7]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of reciting poems.[2][7]
  • early 15th century – Borrowed into English as recite.[6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To read out, recite (a document, in public).[2][4][1][5]
  2. To recite (literary works) before an audience.[2][1]
  3. To appoint, name (in writing).[1]

Word family

  • recitātiō
  • recitātor

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de