sarcio

Forms

sarciō (present infinitive sarcīre, perfect active sarsī, supine sartum); fourth conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *sark-je/o-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *sr̥k-ie/o- (“to make good, emend”).^[2][1] Cognate with Hittite šarni(n)k- (“to compensate, replace”) and Ancient Greek ἕρκος (hérkos, “fence, enclosure”).^[2][3] The OLD gives the Hittite comparison with a “perhaps”, and Lewis & Short call the origin doubtful.^[3][4] Festus explains it as to make whole.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[2] in whose Mostellaria someone feels he cannot repair his house.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

It is to mend or repair: Cato has baskets mended and pitched, and old ropes and patchwork, and Pliny the Elder cracked jars mended.^[3][4] In surgery it is to repair a defect, and Scribonius Largus has a wound stitched.^[3][4] Figuratively Virgil has bees repairing the ruins of their fallen race, and Horace asks whether a badly mended friendship can hold.^[3] It is also to make good a loss: Caesar wants to retrieve the day's setback, and Livy tells soldiers their losses will be made good by plunder.^[3] Cicero speaks of making up for a wrong by honouring a dead man.^[3] Festus reports that in the Twelve Tables sarcītō meant “let him pay for the damage”.^[4] Church Latin glosses it repair, restore, make good, correct.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of repairing a house.^[3][2][6]
• 234–149 BC – Cato of mending baskets.^[3][4][6]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of retrieving a setback.^[3][4][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of bees repairing their race.^[3][6]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of losses made good.^[3][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To mend, patch, repair; in surgery, to repair, stitch.^[3][4][1][5]
2. (figurative) To make good a loss or damage; to retrieve a defeat; to make up for a fault; to restore a sum.^[3][4][1][5]

Word family

• exsarciō
• insarcio
• resarciō
• sarcīmen
• sarcina
• sarcinātor
• sarcinātrix
• sarcītor
• sartor
• sartrix
• sartūra

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de