sevoco

Forms

sēvocō (present infinitive sēvocāre, perfect active sēvocāvī, supine sēvocātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin sē- (“apart”) + vocō (“to call”).^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest quotation in the OLD is from Plautus: quid tū tē sōlus ē senātū sēvocās?, “why do you draw yourself aside from the senate alone?”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short call it a favourite word of Cicero.^[4] Its basic sense is to call someone apart from the others: Caesar writes of calling people aside one by one to encourage them,^[4] and Cicero of the plebs being called away again to the Aventine.^[3][4] Livy reports that the tribunes made it a capital offence to call the people away to a meeting outside the city.^[4][3] It was used figuratively of withdrawing the mind: Cicero writes of separating the mind from the senses, and Catullus says that grief calls him away from the learned maidens.^[4][3] In Cicero's Prō Quīnctiō it means to take for oneself what belongs to a common fund.^[2][3]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it in the Aulularia and other plays.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it often, literally and of the mind.^[4][2]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it figuratively.^[4][3]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of calling men aside.^[4][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of calling the people to a meeting.^[4][3]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it in the Metamorphoses.^[4][2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To call someone aside or apart from the rest, to draw aside;^[2][4][6] (reflexive) to withdraw.^[2][4][6]
2. To call the people away to a meeting elsewhere.^[4][3]
3. (figuratively) To separate, withdraw, remove (especially the mind from something).^[2][4]
4. To appropriate something from a common or public fund.^[2][3]

Related words

• vocō
• sēdūcō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson