Etymologically
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saucio

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈsau̯.ki.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈsaːu̯.t͡ʃi.o][1]

Forms

sauciō (present infinitive sauciāre, perfect active sauciāvī, supine sauciātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin saucius (“wounded”) + -ō.[2][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus uses it first: in the Rudens someone asks why he should not wound a man with rods until he has had his fill.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

It means to wound or hurt a person or body;[2][3] Lewis & Short call it classical but rare and absent from Caesar.[2][3] Cicero writes that Rubrius was wounded in the crowd, and Sallust of someone wounded by the blow of a javelin.[3] It is also used of cutting plants as if wounding them, or of cutting into the ground: Cato warns not to damage the roots.[2] Stelten gives "wound, hurt, injure" for Church Latin.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of beating with rods.[2][3]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato of damaging roots.[2]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of Rubrius wounded in a crowd.[3]
  • 86–34 BC – Sallust of a javelin wound.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To wound, hurt, gash.[2][3][1][4]
  2. To cut, gash (a plant); to cut into, furrow (the ground).[2][1]

Word family

  • cōnsauciō
  • sauciātiō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson