rescisco

Forms

rescīscō (present infinitive rescīscere, perfect active rescīvī or resciī, supine rescītum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin re- + scīscō (“to seek to know, learn”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan lists ⟨scīscere⟩ “to get to know, approve” among the derivatives of sciō (“to know”), which he connects, with some hesitation, with a root meaning “to incise”, Proto-Indo-European *skh₁-i(e/o)-.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Naevius and Plautus on.^[3] A fragment of Naevius has a speaker imagine finding out that his son has borrowed money for a love affair,^[2] and in Plautus a speaker hopes that an old man will not find something out.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is used of learning a fact one had not suspected, of finding something out.^[2] Lewis & Short note that it is mostly pre-classical and especially common in Terence, and that the simple form rescio which Gellius assumes is not found in any text.^[5] It takes an accusative and infinitive, an indirect question or de, or stands alone,^[2] and it continues in Caesar, Nepos, Horace, Curtius and the jurists.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it often of finding out.^[2][3][6]
• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it often.^[2][5][6]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it in the Gallic War.^[2][6]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it with an accusative and infinitive.^[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To find out, learn of (something hidden or not suspected), ascertain.^[2][5]
2. With an accusative and infinitive or an indirect question: to find out that, find out whether.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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 c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de