secedo

Forms

sēcēdō (present infinitive sēcēdere, perfect active sēcessī, supine sēcessum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from sē- (“apart”) and cēdō (“to go”).^[2][1] De Vaan derives ⟨cēdō⟩ from Proto-Italic *kesde- (“to go away, avoid”) and, following Lubotsky, Proto-Indo-European *ḱyesdʰ- (“to drive away; go away”), cognate with Sanskrit सेधति (sédhati, “drives away”); he rejects the old explanation as ⟨*ke⟩ “here” and a root “to sit”.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus is its first author,^[4] with fugite omnēs, abīte et dē viā sēcēdite, “run, everyone, go away and get out of the road”, in the Curculio.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to draw aside or withdraw, especially to a private place for talk, as in Plautus' Asinaria.^[2][5] Politically it is to secede, of the plebs who left the city in the early Republic, as Cicero's “in the sixteenth year after the kings were expelled they seceded because of the excessive power of the great”, and to dissociate oneself from a cause, as Gellius' citizen who took no side in civil strife.^[2]

It is also to withdraw from Rome to the country, for rest or in abandonment of public life, as Valerius Maximus' Metellus Numidicus, who withdrew to Asia.^[2] Lewis and Short note that Caesar does not use it.^[5] Church Latin glosses it “go away, withdraw, depart, retire, secede, separate”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of getting out of the road.^[2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of the secession of the plebs.^[2][4]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius of keeping out of civil strife.^[2][4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To draw aside, withdraw; to go apart (for private talk).^[2][5][1]
2. To secede (of the plebs); to dissociate oneself.^[2][1][6]
3. To retire (to the country), for leisure or from public life.^[2][1]

Word family

• sēcessiō
• sēcessus

Related words

• cēdō
• discēdō
• recēdō
• English secede

References

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