recondo

Forms

recondō (present infinitive recondere, perfect active recondidī, supine reconditum); third conjugation^[1] Festus records a form reconduit, glossed as “re-established”.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin re- + condō (“to put together, store, hide”);^[2][1][3] Quintilian already discussed its two prefixes.^[3] ⟨condō⟩ is from con- and the root Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to put”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it in the sense “to store away”: a parasite calls himself an empty vessel to store leftovers in.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to put away or store, and to put something back in its place, as a sword returned to its sheath: Cicero speaks of a decree of the senate shut away in the records “like a sword in its scabbard”.^[2] Ovid and Seneca use it of putting things back in place, and Celsus of setting a dislocated limb.^[2] Often it is to hide away: Cicero tells how account books were removed and hidden more carefully.^[2] Seneca says he shut himself away in retirement in order to be of use to more people, and Virgil uses it of burying a sword in a lung.^[2]

Church Latin has it for hide, lay aside, lay up, conceal.^[4] English recondite (1640s) comes from its participle reconditus, “hidden”.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of storing leftovers.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of hiding documents and sheathing a sword.^[2][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of burying a sword in the body.^[2][6]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of withdrawing into retirement.^[2][6]
• 1640s – English recondite, from the participle.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To put away, store, hoard.^[2][7][1][4]
2. To put back in place; to sheathe a sword; to close the eyes again; to set a dislocated limb.^[2][7]
3. To hide away, conceal; to shut oneself away; to bury a weapon in the body.^[2][1][4]

Word family

• perreconditus

Related words

• condō
• abscondō
• English recondite

References

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