Etymologically
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tectus

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Forms

tēctus, tēcta, tēctum; comparative tēctior, superlative tēctissimus[1]

Etymology

It is the participle of tegō (“to cover”), used as an adjective.[1][2] De Vaan traces tegō to Proto-Italic *teg-e/o- (“to cover”), with a participle *tekto- (“covered”), and to Proto-Indo-European *(s)teg-e/o- (“to cover”); the long ⟨ē⟩ of tēctus is due to Lachmann's lengthening.[3] He compares Ancient Greek στέγω (stégō, “to keep off, keep in”) and Lithuanian stógas (“roof”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler has the word from Plautus.[4] The OLD's earliest examples of the adjective are an inscription with a roofed theatre and Cicero, who writes of a small covered walk to be added to a house.[1]

Semantic evolution

Of buildings and passages it means roofed or covered: Hirtius has covered tunnels, and the Via Tēcta was the name of a road in Rome.[1] Caesar and Livy call a decked warship nāvis tēcta.[1] From covered it passed to hidden and concealed, of a river running underground in Ovid, of a secret desire in Cicero.[1] Of people and their speech it means guarded or reserved: Cicero calls a man very cautious in speaking and writes to a friend in veiled words.[1]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of a covered walk, of a hidden desire and of a guarded speaker.[1][4]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar of decked ships.[1][4]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of a river flowing hidden under the earth.[1][4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of buildings, roofed, covered; nāvis tēcta, a decked ship.[1][5]
  2. Covered, hidden; of feelings or conditions, concealed, disguised.[1]
  3. Of people or speech, guarded, secretive, reserved.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson