Etymologically
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vendito

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈweːn.dɪ.toː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈvɛn.di.to][1]

Forms

vēnditō (present infinitive vēnditāre, perfect active vēnditāvī, supine vēnditātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin vendō (“to sell”) + -itō, a frequentative.[2][3] De Vaan lists it, with vendō, among the derivatives of vēnus (“sale”), which he traces to Proto-Italic *wesno- and Proto-Indo-European *wes-no- (“price”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus.[4] Plautus has men in the Tuscan Street who sell themselves, and a mercenary who sells his life for gold.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It is to try to sell, offer for sale again and again: Cicero writes that someone is offering his Tusculan estate, and the Rhetorica ad Herennium speaks of those who hawk goods.[3][2] It is also to sell favours or services for money.[2] Lewis & Short note that it is most often figurative: to advertise the merits of something, cry it up.[3][2] Used with a reflexive pronoun it is to recommend oneself, court favour: Cicero asks whether any guilty man would not have made some show to recommend himself to public opinion.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of selling oneself and one's life.[2][4][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of offering an estate and of courting favour.[3][2][5]
  • 1st century AD – Columella of fish ponds sold at a high price.[3][5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To try to sell, offer for sale again and again; of persons, to prostitute oneself.[2][3][1]
  2. To sell favours or services for money; figuratively, to betray.[2][1]
  3. To advertise the merits of, cry up, praise.[2][3][1]
  4. With a reflexive pronoun, to recommend oneself, ingratiate oneself.[2][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de