remetior

Forms

remētior (present infinitive remētīrī, perfect active remēnsus sum); fourth conjugation, deponent^[1] The TLL notes the spelling remit- in manuscripts of the Old Latin Bible.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin re- (“back, again”) + mētior (“to measure”).^[3][2][1] De Vaan explains mētior as made from a noun Proto-Italic *mēti- (“measurement”), Proto-Indo-European *meh1-ti- (“measurement”).^[4] Cognate with Ancient Greek μῆτις (mêtis, “wisdom, skill”) and Sanskrit मिमीते (mímīte, “measures”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lucretius uses it of a path measured back again: iter retro remensumst.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short call it poetic and post-Augustan.^[5] Virgil uses it of going back over the stars one has watched, and in a passive sense of the sea crossed again, pelago remenso.^[5] Pliny the Elder has a runner who covered the stadia from Sicyon to Elis and back again,^[3] and Statius a road travelled again.^[5] In the declamations ascribed to Quintilian it is to pay back the value of grain in money.^[3][5] Seneca and Martial use it of bringing up again what has been drunk.^[5] Figuratively it is to go back over something in thought or words: Seneca reviews his deeds and words of the day, Apuleius retells a story,^[5] and Statius retraces history.^[3] The Vulgate uses it passively, “it will be measured back”.^[5] Church Latin glosses it to measure again.^[6]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius, of a path measured back.^[5][7]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil, of stars and of the sea crossed again.^[5][7]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca, of reviewing the day.^[5][7]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate, of measuring back.^[5][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To measure back; to return an equal amount of.^[3][5][1][6]
2. To cover (a distance) again or in the reverse direction, travel back over, retrace.^[3][5][1]
3. To bring up again, give back (what was drunk).^[5]
4. To go back over in thought or speech, review, retell.^[3][5]

Related words

• mētior
• mēnsūra

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b 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 e f g h i j k l m n o p Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b 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