percontatio Latin · revision 36544

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=86/82 BC, Rhetorica ad Herennium|origins=la percontor}}

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''percontātiō''' ''f'' (genitive percontātiōnis); third declension^(Wiktionary)

+ It is also spelled ''percunctātiō''.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|percontor|-tiō|t1=to inquire]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(TLL) The OLD derives the verb from [[m|la|per-]] and [[m|la|contus|t=pole]],^(OLD 2012) as if “to sound with a pole”;^(Wiktionary) Wiktionary calls this one of several uncertain suggestions, beside [[m|la|cunctor]] and [[ine-pro|*preḱ-|t=to ask]].^(Wiktionary)

+

+ The ancients argued over it too: Festus reports that Verrius Flaccus took it from the sailors' habit of testing the depth of the water with a pole and wrote it with ⟨o⟩, while Festus himself preferred ⟨u⟩, from asking about everything.^(TLL)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ It appears first in the ''Rhetorica ad Herennium'',^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010) where the speaker is to use [[m|en|questioning]] to ask whether the opponents knew what the law said.^(TLL)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The TLL notes that it belongs to prose only, from the ''Rhetorica ad Herennium'' and Cicero on.^(TLL) It meant the action of [[m|en|inquiry]] and also a particular question: Caesar could learn nothing more of Britain by inquiries, and in Livy Gracchus replies to such a question.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Conte 2010) Quintilian uses it of the varied questioning of witnesses.^(OLD 2012) Cicero names it as a figure of speech,^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913) and Pliny the Elder pairs it with conversation.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ British medieval writers kept it, often in the spelling ⟨percunctatio⟩, and some distinguished it from ''interrogātiō'': a ''percunctātiō'' allows many answers, an ''interrogātiō'' only yes or no.^(DMLBS)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 86/82 BC – The ''Rhetorica ad Herennium'' uses it of questioning an opponent.^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it and names it as a figure of speech.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 50 BC – Caesar says inquiries brought him no more news of Britain.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Conte 2010)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of a particular question put to a commander.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of the questioning of witnesses.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # The action of questioning, [[m|en|inquiry]], [[m|en|interrogation]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # A particular question or line of questioning.^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913)

+ # ''(rhetoric)'' A question as a [[m|en|figure of speech]].^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913)^(Conte 2010)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[interrogātiō]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}