Etymologically
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renumero

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Forms

renumerō (present infinitive renumerāre, perfect active renumerāvī, supine renumerātum); first conjugation[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin re- + numerō (“to count”).[1][3][4] De Vaan derives numerō from numerus (“number”), which he traces to Proto-Italic *nomeso- and, through a thematized s-stem, to Proto-Indo-European *nem-e/os- (“apportioning, sacrifice”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Plautus,[3][6] in the sense “pay back”: in the Bacchides a girl would gladly pay back the soldier if she had the gold (si haec habeat aurum, quod illi militi renumeret).[3][1]

Semantic evolution

In Terence's Hecyra the dowry is to be paid back (renumeret dotem huc),[1][3] and the commentator Donatus remarks that the verb is used properly there because a dowry is money.[3] Apuleius uses it of giving back money received as a dowry,[3][7] and later writers of paying back a price or a debt to a creditor.[3] A decree of the town council of Gabii of AD 140 applies it to a sum to be paid out to the people of Tusculum.[3][1]

Lewis & Short take “count over” as the literal sense,[2] and Caesar uses it of reporting a count: his men reported to him about 30,000 arrows shot into a fort (milia sagittarum circiter XXX in castellum coniecta Caesari renumeraverunt).[1][3][8]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of paying back gold.[3][6]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of paying back a dowry.[1][3][6]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of reporting a count of arrows.[1][3][6]
  • AD 140 – A decree of the council of Gabii uses it of a sum to be paid out.[3]
  • c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it of repaying money.[3][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To pay back, repay (what is owed).[1][2]
  2. To pay out (a sum due to others).[3]
  3. To count up; to report a count of.[1][8]

Word family

  • renumerātiō

Usage notes

Manuscripts often confuse it with remunerō “reward”.[3]

References

  1. ^ 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
  2. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  8. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier