semoveo

Forms

sēmoveō (present infinitive sēmovēre, perfect active sēmōvī, supine sēmōtum); second conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin sē- (“apart”) + moveō (“to move”).^[2][1] De Vaan explains the prefix as the old ablative ⟨sēd⟩, which as a preposition meant “without, away”.^[3] The verb moveō goes back to Proto-Italic *mow(a)- and Proto-Indo-European *m(i̯)euh₁- (“to move”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first use is in Terence, vos semotae, nos soli, “you women, stand aside; we are alone”.^[4][5][6]

Semantic evolution

It means to move apart, put aside, remove or separate, a word Lewis and Short call rare but classical.^[2][4] Cicero uses it of people kept away from the free citizens at the games by the crier's voice, and in a figurative sense of setting words, opinions or pleasure aside, or of excluding the philosopher Strato from a school.^[4][5] Lucretius removes a reader from cares, and the Rhetorica ad Herennium separates one thing from another.^[4][6] Its participle sēmōtus became an adjective meaning distant, remote, as in Caesar and Horace.^[4] Apuleius has semotis procul profanis, “the uninitiated being sent far away”.^[6] In Ecclesiastical Latin it also means to renounce.^[7]

Timeline

• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of sending people aside.^[4][8]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of removing someone from cares.^[4][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of separating opinions from philosophy.^[4][8]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it of sending the uninitiated away.^[6][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To move apart, put aside, remove.^[2][4][6]
2. To separate, exclude, set aside from consideration.^[2][4][5]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To renounce.^[7]

Word family

• sēmōtus

Related words

• moveō
• āmoveō
• sēparō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b 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 e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de