retento

Forms

retentō (present infinitive retentāre, perfect active retentāvī, supine retentātum); first conjugation^[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin retineō (“to hold back, keep”) + -tō, a frequentative.^[1][2][3] The base verb is a compound of teneō (“to hold”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *t(e)nē- and Proto-Indo-European *tn-eh₁- (“to hold”), a stative present of the root Proto-Indo-European *ten- (“to stretch”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first quotation is from Plautus: cur me retentas? — quia tui amans abeuntis egeo, “why do you hold me back? — because I love you and miss you as you go”.^[1][5]

Semantic evolution

It means to keep hold of or hold fast, as of reins in Ovid,^[1][5] and to hold back or restrain: Virgil uses it of a snake held back by its wounded part, Livy of a column of troops, and Ovid of a driver checking his horses.^[1] Lucretius has the elements keep the sky apart from the earth,^[1][5] and the Rhetorica ad Herennium uses it reflexively of a man who keeps himself silent.^[1][2] Tacitus uses it of keeping legions in a place and of guards keeping money,^[1] and a poem of Cicero's has the divine mind preserving the senses and lives of men, though the OLD notes that this may be the other verb, retemptō.^[1][2] Figuratively, Valerius Flaccus has a phalanx holding back its anger.^[1][2] Lewis & Short call it rare and absent from Cicero's prose.^[2] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means to hold back or hold fast.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of holding someone back.^[1][7]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of keeping the sky apart from the earth.^[1][7]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of holding back a column.^[1][7]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a wounded snake.^[1][7]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of detaining legions.^[1][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To keep hold of, hold fast.^[1][2][6]
2. To hold back, restrain; to keep a feeling in check; to keep apart.^[1][2]
3. To keep in a place, detain.^[1]
4. To retain possession of; to retain the loyalty of.^[1]

Word family

• retentator
• retentatrix

Related words

• retineō
• teneō

Usage notes

A different verb, retemptō “to try again, feel again”, from ⟨re-⟩ and temptō, is often spelled retentō as well;^[1][2][5] it is mainly a poetic word of the Augustan age, used by Ovid.^[2] Georges and Gaffiot give the two numbered entries under one spelling, while the OLD files the second under retemptō.^[3][8][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
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 d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.