Etymologically
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sevoco

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈseː.wɔ.koː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈsɛː.vo.ko][1]

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]

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