Etymologically
Log in

vellico

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 14:09. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈwɛl.lɪ.koː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈvɛl.li.ko][1]

Forms

vellicō (present infinitive vellicāre, perfect active vellicāvī, supine vellicātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin vellō (“to pluck”) + -icō.[2][1][3] Vellō goes back to Proto-Italic *weln-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *ul-n(e)-h3-, a nasal present beside an aorist *uelh3- (“to strike”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan records it first in Plautus,[3][4] who in the Mercator uses it of everyone who would stare at a maid walking in the streets, nodding, winking, whistling and pinching: nutent, nictent, sibilent, vellicent.[2]

Semantic evolution

Its literal sense is to pinch or nip, and of a bird to peck: Plautus has a crow that vellicat two vultures in turn, and Quintilian a boy who said his tutor was pinching him.[2][5][6] Varro uses it of a bee that plucks at things without spoiling anyone's work.[2] Figuratively it means to criticise carpingly, pull to pieces: in Cicero's speech for Balbus people in conviviis rodunt, in circulis vellicant, “gnaw at him at dinner parties and pick at him in groups”, and Horace and Propertius use it the same way.[2][5] Seneca uses it of rousing the mind and of a friend's death that will sting.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of pinching and pecking.[2][3][4]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of a bee.[2][4]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of carping criticism.[2][4]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of rousing the mind.[2][4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To pinch, nip; of a bird, to peck.[2][5]
  2. To tear away bit by bit.[2]
  3. (figurative) To criticize carpingly, pull to pieces.[2][5]
  4. (figurative) To rouse, sting.[2]

Word family

  • vellicātiō

Usage notes

Lewis and Short give carpō as a synonym.[5] De Vaan records the adverb vellicātim, “by picking out here and there”, in Sisenna.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University 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 c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn