tricor

Forms

trīcor (present infinitive trīcārī, perfect active trīcātus sum); first conjugation, deponent^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin trīcae (“complications, tricks; trifles”) + -or, a deponent verb made from the noun.^[2][3][1] The origin of trīcae is uncertain: de Vaan compares a Tocharian verb meaning “miss”, while noting that Tocharian allows several reconstructions, or, if “trifles” was the oldest sense, the forms in ⟨trī-⟩ that belong to terō (“to rub”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Cicero's letters to Atticus,^[2][5] meaning “to be evasive, make difficulties”: Publilius tecum tricatus est, “Publilius has been evasive with you”.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

The deponent kept the sense of shuffling and raising difficulties in Phaedrus and Columella.^[6][5] An active form trīcō appears in the Tironian notes, in Apicius and in the Vulgate, where it means “to dally, delay”.^[6][3] Stelten glosses the word in Church Latin as “to trifle”.^[7]

Etymonline reports that scholars of French trace Old French trichier (“to cheat”) to Vulgar Latin *triccō, from this verb, and so ultimately the English word trick; others suggest a Dutch source for the French word.^[8]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of someone behaving evasively.^[2][9]
• c. 15 BC–c. 50 AD – Phaedrus uses it.^[6][9]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it.^[5][9]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate has the active trīcō, “to dally”.^[3][9]
• early 15th century – English trick appears, a word some scholars trace back to this verb.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To behave in an evasive way, make difficulties, shuffle.^[2][3][5]
2. (Late Latin, active trīcō) To dally, delay: hōrā surgendī nē tē trīcēs, “at the hour of rising, do not dally” (Vulgate, Sirach 32:15).^[3][6]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To trifle.^[7]

Related words

• trīcō
• intrīcō
• extrīcō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. ^ 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 Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de