seco

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈsɛ.koː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈsɛː.ko]^[1]

Forms

secō (present infinitive secāre, perfect active secuī, supine sectum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *sekaje/o-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *sekh₁-ie/o- (“to cut off”).^[2][1]

Cognate with Umbrian prusekatu (“let him cut out”), used of the entrails of a sacrificial animal,^[2] Old Church Slavonic сѣщи (sěšti, “to cut”)^[2][1] and Old English saga (“saw”).^[1][3] De Vaan also compares Hittite šākk- (“to know, pay attention to”), with a different meaning.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Naevius onwards.^[2] In Plautus one character tells another, “take a knife, cut your finger or your ear”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It meant to cut or sever, to cut up timber or meat, to cut off a part, and to make an incision.^[3] Cicero used it in philosophy of things that can be cut and divided without end.^[3] In medicine it meant to operate on or amputate,^[4][1] and it was used for castrating.^[4][1] Figuratively it meant to wound or hurt.^[4]

Poets used it of ships and birds that cleave the water or the air, and of a road cut through the land.^[3] Gellius reports that the Twelve Tables let creditors cut up the body of a condemned debtor, secare and divide it.^[5] It survives as Italian segare, French scier and Spanish and Portuguese segar, and Italian later borrowed secare.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 235–200 BC – Naevius uses it.^[2][6]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for cutting a finger.^[3][6]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it for cutting timber.^[3][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of matter that can be cut without end.^[3][6]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius discusses the Twelve Tables' rule on cutting up a debtor.^[5][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cut, sever.^[3][5]
2. To cut up, slice, chop.^[3]
3. To cut off, detach.^[3]
4. To make an incision in, gash.^[3]
5. (medicine) To operate on, amputate.^[4][1]
6. To castrate.^[4][1]
7. To wound, hurt.^[4][1]
8. To cleave (water, air); to plough.^[3]
9. To cut (a road or path).^[3]

Word family

• circumsecō
• cōnsecō
• dēsecō
• dissecō
• exsecō
• īnsecō
• īnsectus
• intersecō
• persecō
• praesecō
• prōsecō
• resecō

Related words

• sciō
• sexus
• signum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, D. P. (1959), Cassell's New Latin Dictionary, London: Cassell
5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de