tecum

See also: Tecum

English

Noun

tecum (uncountable)

1. Alternative form of tucum

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Latin

Etymology

Univerbation of tē (“you”) +‎ cum (“with”).

Two, not necessarily mutually exclusive explanations have been offered:

The first explanation was offered by Cicero, who believed that the normal word order of cum nōbīs "with us" would sound too much like cunnō bis "twice in the cunt", so the words were reversed. This reversal was then applied to cum vōbīs, cum mē, cum tē, and cum sē.

A modern explanation is that the word ordering comes from the fact that in Proto-Indo-European the word *ḱóm (from which cum derives) was an adverb, not a preposition as it became in Latin. As such the *ḱóm could appear before or after the object pronoun since it was the object of the verb, not the object of a preposition. As these special particles evolved into prepositions this word order became archaic even though it was still commonly used. Thus the contraction nōbīscum (and mēcum, etc.) evolved into an adverb in its own right.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈteː.kum/, [ˈt̪eːkʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈte.kum/, [ˈt̪ɛːkum]

Adverb

tēcum (not comparable)

1. with you, with thee

• Martialis, Epigrammatta 1.2

  Qui tecum cupis esse meos ubicumque libellos

• Tēcum sentiō. ― I agree with you.
• Tēcum simul. ― Together with you.
• Pax tēcum. ― Peace be with you.
• Sit vīs tēcum. ― May the force be with you.

Descendants

• Asturian: tigo
• Emilian: têg
• Italian: teco
• Old Galician-Portuguese: tigo
  • Galician: contigo
  • Portuguese: contigo (com + tigo)
• Old Spanish: tigo
  • Spanish: contigo (con + tigo)

See also

• mēcum
• nōbiscum
• sēcum
• quācum
• quibuscum
• quīcum
• quōcum
• vōbiscum

References

• “tecum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “tecum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• tecum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • I have a point to discuss with you: res mihi tecum est
    
  • I agree with you there: hoc mihi tecum convēnit (Att. 6. 1. 14)
    
• “tecum”, in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly