Etymologically
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seco

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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

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