succinctus

Forms

succīnctus (feminine succīncta, neuter succīnctum; comparative succīnctior); first/second-declension adjective^[1][2]

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the past participle from Latin succingō (“to gird up”).^[3][4] The OLD analyses it as sub- with the participle of cingō (“to gird”).^[1] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of that verb, whose own etymology he considers uncertain.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on,^[5] first in the Rudens, of a woman who heats water with her clothes girded up.^[1]

Semantic evolution

The basic sense is of people busy at vigorous work, with their clothes gathered up by a belt to move freely; figuratively it meant ready, girt up for a task, as when Quintilian describes pupils poised to cheer at every period.^[1][2] With an ablative it meant girded with something or wearing a belted garment: Ennius has a woman lugubri succincta stola “in a mourning robe”, and Petronius dresses Fortunata in a green girdle;^[1] it also meant equipped with something tucked into the belt, above all a weapon, as in Ennius' succincti corda machaeris, and by extension girt with defences, as Cicero says of Carthage, succincta portibus, armata muris, “girt with harbours, armed with walls”.^[1]

Ovid and Pliny the Elder apply it to trees with a compact, bushy top.^[1] Martial uses it of a compact book, which led to the sense concise, brief, of a statement.^[1][2]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a woman with her clothes girded up.^[1][5]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it of people girt with swords and of a mourning robe.^[1]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero calls Carthage girt with harbours.^[1]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of bushy-topped pine trees.^[1]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial calls a little book succinctus, compact.^[1][2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having one's clothes gathered up by a belt or girdle for free movement;^[1][2] (figurative) ready, girt up for a task.^[1][2]
2. (of trees) Bushy-topped.^[1]
3. (of a book) Compact;^[1][2] (of a statement) concise, succinct.^[1][2]
4. (with ablative) Girded with, wearing (a belted garment); tightly wrapped or surrounded by.^[1]
5. (with ablative) Equipped with something in one's belt, especially a weapon;^[1] (transferred) girt with defences or strength.^[1]

Related words

• succingō
• cingō
• cingulum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ 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