recogito

Forms

recōgitō (present infinitive recōgitāre, perfect active recōgitāvī, supine recōgitātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin re- + cōgitō (“to think”).^[2][3][4] De Vaan lists the simple verb among the derivatives of agō (“to drive, do”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus is its first author:^[3][6] the prologue of his Captīvī exclaims homunculī quantī sunt, quom recōgitō!, “what little men we are, when I think it over!”^[6]

Semantic evolution

It meant to think something over or reflect, with or without sēcum and often with an indirect question, as in Columella.^[7][8] Cicero has it with dē and the ablative, to think again about something.^[7][9] The TLL finds it in verse only in Plautus and the Epigrammata Bobiensia, in prose at single places in Cicero, Seneca and others, and much more often from the Old Latin Bible and Tertullian on.^[3] The Vulgate uses it of thinking in one's heart and of God taking thought of people.^[6] Glossaries render it with Ancient Greek ἐπιλογίζομαι (epilogízomai).^[3]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it in the prologue of the Captīvī.^[6][10]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it with dē, to think again about something.^[7][10]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it with an indirect question.^[8][10]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of thinking over what he has said.^[6][10]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it often.^[3][10]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it of God thinking of people.^[6][10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To reflect, think over, consider.^[2][6][7]
2. (transitive) To reflect on.^[8][4]

Word family

• recōgitātiō
• recōgitātus

Related words

• cōgitātiō
• agō

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
10. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de