Etymologically
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subseco

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Forms

subsecō (present infinitive subsecāre, perfect active subsecuī, supine subsectum); first conjugation.[1][2] Varro also writes subsicāre.[1][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin sub- (“under”) + secō (“to cut”).[1][4] De Vaan lists it among the compounds of the simple verb, which goes back to Proto-Italic *sekaje/o- and Proto-Indo-European *sekh₁-ie/o- (“to cut off”).[3] The surveyors' adjective subsicīvus (“left over, spare”) belongs with it.[3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and the OLD record it first in Varro's work on agriculture,[3][1] where grass is to be cut with sickles and some legumes are pulled up rather than cut.[1]

Semantic evolution

It means to cut away below or cut off: Celsus uses it in surgery of flesh to be cut away round a bone and of skin, and Columella of underground pests that kill crops by biting through their roots.[1] Tibullus and Ovid use it of paring the nails.[1][2] The land surveyors use it of a boundary line that divides off land, and Frontinus explains the term subsicivum from the line that cuts it off.[1]

Timeline

  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of cutting grass and legumes.[1][3][5]
  • c. 55–19/18 BC – Tibullus uses it of paring the nails.[1][5]
  • 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it in surgery.[1][5]
  • 1st century AD – Columella uses it of pests cutting the roots of crops.[1][5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To cut away below, cut off; to mow, clip.[1][2][4]
  2. To pare (the nails).[1]
  3. (surveying) To divide off (land) by a boundary line.[1]

Word family

  • subsicīvus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e 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 Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de