sodes

Forms

sōdēs^[2]

Etymology

It is a colloquial contraction from Latin sī (“if”) + audēs (“you want”),^[2][3][4] as Cicero already explained.^[2][3] De Vaan takes it as a relic of the oldest meaning of audeō, “to want very much”, before the verb came to mean “to dare”; he derives the verb from avidus (“greedy”).^[4] The diphthong /au/ became /oː/ in the contraction.^[1]

Festus, as the OLD reports, also explained it as ⟨si audes⟩.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on,^[4][5] who has a character ask dic sodes mihi, “tell me, please”, in the Bacchides.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

It belonged to familiar speech: it softened a command and usually followed an imperative, above all in dic sodes.^[2][7] It could also follow other words to stress them, as in Terence's aliud lenius sodes vide, “look for a milder one, please”.^[2] Catullus and Horace use it in the same conversational way.^[6] Ecclesiastical Latin dictionaries still gloss it as “please”.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus writes dic sodes mihi, “tell me, please”.^[3][6][5]
• 190–159 BC – Terence puts it after other words for emphasis.^[2][5]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus writes aut, sodes, mihi redde decem sestertia, “or else, please, give me back ten thousand sesterces”.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero explains it as a contraction of si audes.^[2][3][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace has me, sodes, “me, please!”.^[6][5]

Meanings

Adverb

1. If you don't mind, please: it softens a command and usually follows the imperative.^[2][3]
2. #: dīc sōdēs – tell me, please.^[2][6]
3. Placed after other words to give them emphasis.^[2]

Related words

• audeō
• avidus
• sī

Usage notes

Niermeyer records a medieval noun sodes “comrade”, which it explains from an interjection sodis drawn towards the vocative of sodalis, and a plural sodes standing for sues, “pigs”.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
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. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill