exacuo Latin · revision 35952

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=116–27 BC, Varro|origins=la acuō}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ɛkˈsa.ku.oː]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [eɡˈzaː.ku.o]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''exacuō''' (present infinitive exacuere, perfect active exacuī, supine exacūtum); third conjugation^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|ex-|acuō|t2=to sharpen]].^(OLD 2012)^(TLL)^(Wiktionary)^(Bianchi & Lelli 2014)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Its first use is in Varro's work on agriculture, where a cutting is to be sharpened to a point without laying bare the pith.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In the literal sense it meant to make sharp or pointed: Virgil uses it of stakes and of a boar whetting its tusks, Columella of props for vines, and Pliny the Elder of iron tools sharpened on a whetstone.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913)^(Conte 2010) Cicero transfers it to the mind, which sharpens the eye of the intellect, and Pliny to plants that sharpen the eyesight or the taste of vinegar.^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913)^(Gaffiot 2016) It also meant to spur on or stimulate, as when Cicero adapts a speech to rouse his hearers,^(OLD 2012)^(Gaffiot 2016) and to intensify feelings: Plancus writes that his correspondent's kindnesses sharpen his anxieties every day.^(OLD 2012) The grammarian Charisius notes that the prefix distinguishes it from the simple [[m|la|acuō]].^(TLL)

+

+ Ecclesiastical writers used it for sharpening and whetting, and for stimulating or encouraging.^(Stelten 1995)

+

+ ==Timeline==

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

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of sharpening the mind and of rousing an audience.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of stakes and a boar's tusks.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Conte 2010)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of whetting iron tools.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Verb===

+ # To [[m|en|sharpen]], make pointed, [[m|en|whet]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # To sharpen (the eyesight or the mind); to make sharper to the taste.^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913)

+ # To spur on, [[m|en|stimulate]], rouse.^(OLD 2012)^(Stelten 1995)

+ # To intensify, [[m|en|aggravate]] (feelings or conditions).^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[exacūtiō]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}