surripio

Forms

surripiō (present infinitive surripere, perfect active surripuī, supine surreptum); third (-iō variant) conjugation^[1] It is also written subripiō, and contracted surpiō; forms in -rupiō are frequent in Plautus.^[2][1] Plautus has the s-future surrepsit.^[3]

Etymology

It is from Latin sub- + rapiō (“to seize, snatch”).^[2][1] De Vaan traces rapiō to Proto-Italic *rap-i- (“to seize”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₁r̥p-i- (“to seize”), comparing Ancient Greek ἐρέπτομαι (eréptomai, “to devour, snatch away”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[3] in whose Asinaria a man is asked whether he has already stolen the cloak to give to a prostitute.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to steal, filch, also of abstract things: in the Casina someone wants to steal that service from the old man.^[2] It is to steal a child, kidnap: the prologue of the Captivi tells of a slave who carried off a boy of four.^[2] Horace has it of snatching someone from death.^[2] It is also to take or remove by stealth: Pliny the Elder has foals secretly put to mares' udders in the dark.^[2] Plautus has it of doing something unseen, as stealing time from the legion, and reflexively of stealing away to someone.^[2] Church Latin glosses it to take by stealth, steal away.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of stealing a cloak, kidnapping a child and stealing away.^[2][3][5]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius has the form surp-.^[2][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of snatching from death.^[2][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of foals put to mares by stealth.^[2][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To steal, filch, take wrongfully; to kidnap.^[2][1][4]
2. To remove from where it belongs; to snatch away.^[2]
3. To take or do by stealth;^[2][4] (reflexive) to steal away.^[2][4]

Word family

• subreptīcius
• subreptiō

Related words

• rapiō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d 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 c d Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de