Etymologically
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retento

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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

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.