indīco & indĭco

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anphph
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indīco & indĭco

Post by anphph »

L&S lists both these verbs, viz. indĭcare,avisse,atum, & indīco, indīxisse,indictum.

Does anyone know how (if?) they are related? What is it that can explain the difference in vowel quantity? Are there other examples of this variation?

Thank you.

mwh
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Re: indīco & indĭco

Post by mwh »

dĭcare/dīcere. They do have common origin, as their Greek cognate δεικ- “show” is enough to (forgive me) show, but their semantic and morphological separation is complete. Beyond that I can’t say, but stem vowels frequently show non-random quantitative variation, so I expect the bifurcation reflects a differential generalization. But I’m only guessing.

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calvinist
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Re: indīco & indĭco

Post by calvinist »

There is also the combination praedico, praedicare / praedīco, praedicere, which used to bother me when I started reading ecclesiastical Latin, since they are similar in meaning: praedicare "to proclaim, preach" praedicere "to say beforehand, prophesy".

mwh
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Re: indīco & indĭco

Post by mwh »

But this pair too of course retains the basic show/tell distinction, as all the compounds will.

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Re: indīco & indĭco

Post by anphph »

dicăre never even crossed my mind. With hindsight it seems so obvious. Thanks MWH!

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calvinist
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Re: indīco & indĭco

Post by calvinist »

mwh wrote:But this pair too of course retains the basic show/tell distinction, as all the compounds will.
I hadn't thought about that, but you're right: pradicare implies speech but the meaning is more like "show forth, make known", whereas praedicere is focused on the act of saying something.

mwh
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Re: indīco & indĭco

Post by mwh »

Miguel, dicăre never even crossed my mind either—neither the one thing nor the other, as Winston Churchill remarked of a Mr Bossom's name. A typo, I presume, but of which? :D
Michael

anphph
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Re: indīco & indĭco

Post by anphph »

Pff ;) dĭcāre*

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