scopus Latin · revision 9384

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=Suetonius|origins=grc σκοπός}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA (Classical): [ˈskɔ.pʊs]^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈskɔː.pus]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''scopus''' ''m'' (genitive scopī); second declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|grc|σκοπός|tr=skopós|t=watcher; mark, aim]], from the root of [[m|grc|σκέπτομαι|tr=sképtomai|t=to look at]], [[ine-pro|*speḱ-|t=to observe]].^(Wiktionary)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Lewis & Short and Gaffiot cite Suetonius, of Domitian shooting arrows at a boy's outspread hand as a target, though the reading is doubtful.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Gaffiot 2016) Köbler dates Suetonius c. 75–c. 150 AD.^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It was a goal, a target, as in Suetonius, and figuratively an aim, as in Cassian.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Gaffiot 2016) Cicero has the Greek word in a letter.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant aim, objective, target, goal, scope.^(Stelten 1995) British Medieval Latin took it for “one who sees”.^(DMLBS) Through Italian ''scopo'' “aim” it gave [[en|scope]] in the 1530s, first “room to act”.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses it.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 1530s – English ''scope'' is recorded.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|target]], mark, (figurative) an aim, goal.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Gaffiot 2016)^(Stelten 1995)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[en|scope]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ A different word, ''scōpus'' “the stalk of a cluster of grapes”, is found only in Varro, and the OLD compares [[scōpae]] “twigs, broom”, and Gaffiot reads the passage as a form of ''scōpiō''.^(OLD 2012)^(Gaffiot 2016)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}