repente

Forms

repente (not comparable)^[1]

Etymology

It is the adverb of repēns (“sudden”).^[2][1][3] The origin of that adjective is unclear: Walde and Hofmann derived it from ⟨*wrep-⟩, from Proto-Indo-European *werp- (“to twist”), “with a sudden move”; de Vaan prefers a link with rapiō (“to seize”) and reconstructs Proto-Italic *rep-nt-, an aorist participle ⟨*h₁rep-nt-⟩ “seizing”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Ennius.^[3] Plautus has is repente abiit ā mē hinc ante lūcem, “he suddenly went away from me before dawn”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Repente is “without warning, suddenly” (Terence: he had suddenly taken up music), and “in an instant, all at once”, as in Plautus' repente exortus sum, repentīnō occidī, “I rose all at once and all at once I set”, and Cato's repente largiter habēre, repente nihil, “to have plenty all at once, all at once nothing”.^[2][1]

Church Latin glosses it “suddenly”.^[5]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it.^[2][3]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: is repente abiit.^[2][3]
• 234–149 BC – Cato: repente largiter habēre, repente nihil.^[2][3]

Meanings

Adverb

1. suddenly, without warning.^[2][1][5]
2. In an instant, all at once.^[2]

Related words

• repēns
• repentīnus
• subitō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ 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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson