retexo

Forms

retexō (present infinitive retexere, perfect active retexuī, supine retextum); third conjugation^[1] The perfect is retexuī; a perfect retexī in Manilius is doubtful.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin re- + texō (“to weave”).^[3][1] De Vaan traces texō to Proto-Italic *tekse/o- and, by preference, Proto-Indo-European *teḱ-s- (“to fashion”).^[4] Cognate with Sanskrit तक्षति (tákṣati, “fashions”) and Hittite takš-zi (“to devise”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first examples are in Lucretius, of bodies that cannot be broken down, and in Cicero, of a doctrine that, like Penelope unweaving her web, at the end undoes what came before.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Its literal sense is to unweave or unravel a web,^[3][2] and so to break something down gradually.^[3] In a letter to Cicero, Matius asks whether he should change what he did as a young man and so unmake himself.^[3] It also means to undo what has been done, cancel or reverse it: Cicero says that a praetor seemed less to hold his own office than to unweave his predecessor's.^[3] Of words it is to retract, and Horace has a writer reworking everything he has written.^[3] Virgil uses it of retracing a course, as warriors complete five circles and retrace as many.^[3] Church Latin has it as to unweave, cancel, annul, but also to repeat or relate again.^[5][1]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius, of bodies being broken down.^[3][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of Penelope's web and of undoing a predecessor's acts.^[3][6]
• 65–8 BC – Horace, of reworking one's writings.^[3][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil, of retracing circles.^[3][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To unweave, unravel;^[3][2][1] to break down gradually.^[3]
2. To undo, cancel, reverse;^[3][1] to retract (one's words).^[3]
3. To retrace (a course or a story).^[3]
4. To renew, repeat, relate again.^[1][5]

Related words

• texō
• extexō
• tēla

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b 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
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de