vellico Latin · revision 34322

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=c. 250–184 BC, Plautus|origins=la vellō}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ˈwɛl.lɪ.koː]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [ˈvɛl.li.ko]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''vellicō''' (present infinitive vellicāre, perfect active vellicāvī, supine vellicātum); first conjugation^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|vellō|-icō|t1=to pluck]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(de Vaan 2008) [[m|la|vellō|alt=Vellō]] goes back to [[itc-pro|*weln-e/o-]] and [[ine-pro|*ul-n(e)-h3-]], a nasal present beside an aorist [[m|ine-pro|*uelh3-|t=to strike]].^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ De Vaan records it first in Plautus,^(de Vaan 2008)^(Köbler 2010) 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''.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==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.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913) Varro uses it of a bee that plucks at things without spoiling anyone's work.^(OLD 2012) 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.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Seneca uses it of rousing the mind and of a friend's death that will sting.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of pinching and pecking.^(OLD 2012)^(de Vaan 2008)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of a bee.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of carping criticism.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of rousing the mind.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Verb===

+ # To [[m|en|pinch]], [[m|en|nip]]; of a bird, to [[m|en|peck]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # To tear away bit by bit.^(OLD 2012)

+ # ''(figurative)'' To [[m|en|criticize]] carpingly, pull to pieces.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # ''(figurative)'' To rouse, sting.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[vellicātiō]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ Lewis and Short give [[carpō]] as a synonym.^(Lewis & Short 1879) De Vaan records the adverb ''vellicātim'', “by picking out here and there”, in Sisenna.^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}