Etymologically
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saeptum

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈsae̯p.tũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈsɛp.tum][1]

Forms

saeptum n (genitive saeptī); second declension[1] It is also spelled sēptum, and is usually plural.[2][3]

Etymology

Used as a noun, it is the neuter participle from Latin saepiō (“to fence in, enclose”).[2][1] That verb comes from saepēs (“hedge, fence”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *saip-i-; a link with Proto-Indo-European *seh₂-i- (“to tie”) is tempting, he says, but the suffix it needs is unknown.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero.[5] Lucretius says that smell does not pass through stone walls, saxea saepta.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is an enclosed space, especially a fold or paddock for animals, as in Varro;[2] Varro also has a game preserve enclosing about four thousand paces, and Columella a fish enclosure.[2] The plural saepta named the voting enclosures in the Campus Martius, into which Cicero says a man burst, and Cicero speaks of a tribune attacked with fragments of their wooden fence.[2] It is also a surrounding wall or fence,[2][3] a sluice or weir in Ulpian,[2] and in Celsus a partition in the body, the diaphragm.[2] Church Latin has it as fence, wall, enclosure, hedge.[6]

Timeline

  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius, of stone walls.[2][5]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro, of folds and a game preserve.[2][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, of the voting enclosures.[2][5]
  • 14–37 AD – Celsus, of the diaphragm.[2][5]
  • before 223 AD – Ulpian, of a sluice.[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An enclosure, fold for animals;[2][1] a game preserve; an enclosure for fish.[2][1]
  2. (plural) The voting enclosures in the Campus Martius.[2][1]
  3. A surrounding wall or fence.[2][3][1]
  4. A barrier: a sluice, weir;[2][1] (medicine) a partition, the diaphragm.[2][1]

Word family

  • saeptatus
  • saeptuōsus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  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 e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson