Etymologically
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reseco

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈrɛ.sɛ.koː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈrɛː.s̬e.ko][1]

Forms

resecō (present infinitive resecāre, perfect active resecuī, supine resectum); first conjugation[1] Cato and Varro have resicō.[2] The TLL finds no perfect in -secu-;[3][4] Symmachus has resecāvī.[3][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin re- + secō (“to cut”).[2][1][3] De Vaan traces secō to Proto-Italic *sekaje/o- and Proto-Indo-European *sekh₁-ie/o- (“to cut off”), comparing Umbrian prusekatu (“to cut out”), used of the entrails of a victim.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the OLD's earliest quotation Cato says to cut back a vine when it is two years old.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

It is first to prune or trim, shorten by cutting.[2] Lewis & Short note that classical writers use it mostly figuratively, of curtailing or restraining: Cicero will heal what can be healed and not let what must be cut away remain to ruin the state.[4][2] It is also to cut off at the base: Cicero tells how the Carthaginians cut off Regulus' eyelids and killed him by keeping him awake.[2] A declamation once ascribed to Quintilian uses it of cutting open the vital organs.[2] Church Latin glosses it to cut out, root out, curtail, check.[7] English resect comes from its past participle, from the 1650s.[8]

Timeline

  • 234–149 BC – Cato of cutting back a vine.[2][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of cutting away evils and of Regulus' eyelids.[2][6]
  • 1650s – English resect.[8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To cut back, prune, trim.[2][4][1]
  2. To curtail, check, restrain; to prune language.[2][4][1][7]
  3. To cut off at the base, sever.[2][4][1]
  4. To cut open.[2]

Word family

  • irresectus
  • resecabilis
  • resecatio
  • resectiō
  • resegmen

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 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. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com