Salvete,
I notice that Traupman’s Conversational Latin uses carpere to mean “pick on”. I think that carpere has a harsher sense.
Views or examples from Classical or later Latin?
b to criticize, carp at, pull to pieces (usu. behind one’s back).
non illo inimico, sed hoc malo dente ~unt (sc. Balbum) CIC. Balb. 57; qui mihi amicum eripuerunt ~endo MAT. Fam. 11.28.7; ficto te (Hespere) ~ere questu CATUL. 62.36; ut ‥ etiam nostrorum militum uocibus non nihil ~eretur CAES. Gal. 3.17.5; Maenius absentem Nouium cum ~eret HOR. S. 1.3.21; milites ‥ inter se dictatorem sermonibus ~ere LIV. 7.12.12; soli Aetoli decretum ‥ clam mussantes ~ebant 33.31.1; ~itque et ~itur una suppliciumque suum est (sc. Inuidia) OV. Met. 2.781; VELL. 2.32.5; cum tua non edas, ~is mea carmina, Laeli MART. 1.91.1; QUINT. Inst. 11.1.24; recte facta minus ‥ ~imus PLIN. Ep. 1.8.6; quia factum quoddam suum maligno sermone ~sisset SUET. Aug. 27.3; (with abstract subject) Paulum ‥ obtrectatio ~sit LIV. 45.35.5; laedere uiuos liuor et iniusto ~ere dente solet OV. Pont. 3.4.74.
Glare, P. G. W. (Ed.). (2012). Oxford Latin Dictionary (Second Edition, Vol. I & II). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Yes, these examples are precisely my point: “to pick on” someone is generally (according to my understanding) more playful and less vicious than those referenced examples seem to indicate of carpere When a kid says “she’s picking on me”, we hardly think slander, detraction or verbal ripping apart. I tend to think more teasing although bullying could be involved.
I notice “carp at” in glosses above. My youngest asks me to read “Thomas the Rhymer” every night before bed, and the “harp and carp” there with carp meaning sing, is from old Norse karpa. Apparently the Latin influence changed the meaning of the word at some point.
When a kid says “she’s picking on me”, we hardly think slander, detraction or verbal ripping apart. I tend to think more teasing although bullying could be involved.
I think our understanding of bullying has rather moved on. “Picking on” by children or adults is definitely bullying in my book.
Also, Traupman uses neo-Latin as well as Classical Latin words in his book. I realize that word meanings in Latin have developed from Late Antiquity through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and beyond. That melange sometimes is a bit disconcerting for one who concentrates on Latin up to around 500 CE.