2448. No 5., Fes. 2. °56.] 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
87 
ON THE DERIVATION OF THE LATIN VERB 
“ USURPARE.” 
A recent part of the Transactions of the Philo- 
logical Society contains a paper by Professor Key, 
“On the Derivation and Meaning of the Latin 
verb usurpare ” (1855, p. 96.). - Professor Key 
begins by rejecting Freund’s derivation from usu 
rapere, “to seize to one’s use.” He remarks 
justly, that the sense of “usurping” does not 
properly belong to usurpo ; and he further points 
out that the derivation from rapere does not ac- 
count for usurpo being of the first conjugation. 
He then expresses his opinion that the verb in 
question was deduced directly. from an adjectival 
form, usurupus or usurups, and that usurpare, 
contracted from usurupare, properly signifies “ to 
perform the office of a usus-breaker.” 
Professor Key is doubtless right in treating 
usurpare as a technical term, which has passed 
from legal phraseology into common use. Its 
primitive and proper meaning, however, seems 
rather that of acquiring a title by possession than 
of interrupting the possession of another. Thus 
the phrase usurpare servitutem means to exercise 
a right over an easement, and not primarily to 
prevent the exercise of another's right. In the 
year after the admission of plebeians to the quese 
torship, the tribunes are described by Livy as 
enraged at the election of none but patricians to 
that office, and exclaiming, “ Quidnam id rei 
esset? non suis beneficiis, non patrum injuriis, 
non denique usurpandi libidine quum liceat quod non 
ante licuerit, si non tribunum militarem, ne ques- 
torem quidem quemquam ex plebe factum” (iv. 
44.). Here the primary idea is the assertion of a 
right, by exercising it for the first time. A simi- 
lar idea is conveyed in his account of the election 
of the first plebeian to the office of consular tri- 
bune. The tribunes, he says, urged the election 
of several plebeians: ‘“ Non tamen ultra proces- 
sum est quam ut unus ex plebe, usurpandi juris 
causa, P. Licinius Calvus tribunus militum con- 
sulari potestate crearetur” (v. 12.). 
According to the Law of the Twelve Tables, a 
woman who absented herself for three nights in a 
ear from a man with whom she cohabited, saved 
erself from becoming his wife by prescription. 
When she went away, she was said “ire usur- 
patum,” “abesse a viro usurpandi causa ;” that is 
to say, she absented herself in order to assert her 
right of independence by exercising it: in the 
same manner that a person who allows the com- 
mon use of a road, without dedicating it to the 
public, exercises his right by setting up a barrier 
across it from time to time. In this case the idea 
of interrupting another’s inchoate right agrees 
with the context; but the simple idea of asserting 
a right by the exercise of it is equally suitable. 
(See Dirksen, Zwilf-Tafel-Fragmente, p. 418.) 
Looking to the different uses of the word in 
legal phraseology, it appears to me that another 
derivation would fulfil the conditions of the prob- 
lem better than that proposed by Professor Key. 
I would deduce the word from usu-parare, and 
would understand it as signifying “to acquire by 
user.” The sense of purare in its compounds is 
variable. In comparare (with the force of com- 
paring), separare, and @quiparare, it means “ to 
place,” “to arrange ;” in imperare its force is not 
so obvious; the original meaning seems to have 
been that of a requisition in kind, “to compel a 
person to produce or furnish something ;” as “ fru- 
mentum imperatum.” In adparare and pre- 
parare, also comparare and reparare in some of 
their senses, the verb does not differ materially 
from its use in the simple form. 
One of the senses of parare is to acquire, “ ac- 
quirere, adsciscere,” as it is rendered by Forcel- 
lini, who illustrates this well-known force of the 
word by examples. The compound form, com- 
parare, likewise bears this sense. Thus Cicero 
says, “Comparare victum et cultum humanum 
labore et industria.” Hence the Italian comperare 
or comprare, and the Spanish comprar, “to buy.” 
Reparare likewise signifies “to reacquire, to re- 
cover.” Thus Pliny says, “ Reparare quod ami- 
seris:” Ovid, “ Nec nova crescendo reparabat 
cornua Phebe:” Lucan, “ Nec reparare novas 
vires, multumque priori Credere fortunz.” 
From parare, in the sense of acquiring, the 
Romance languages have formed a new com- 
pound, emparar or amparar, Spanish, Portuguese, 
and Provengal ; s’emparer, French, “ to take pos- 
session of, to seize.” Hence, too, the Italian zm- 
parare and apparare, “to learn, to seize with the 
mind,” and disparare, “to unlearn.” Ampardar, 
Spanish, whence the substantive ampdra, is a law 
term, and denotes the seizure of moveable or 
chattel property : “ ampar4r en la posesion ” is to 
maintain in possession. This approaches very 
close to the meaning which is assigned to the 
verb parare in the proposed derivation of usurpo. 
(See Diez., Roman. Worterbuch, in v. parare, 
p. 251.; Muratori, Dissert. xxxiii., in imparare. ) 
If we suppose the sense of acquiring to obtain 
in the compound verb usuparo or usupero, we can 
easily conceive, first, its contraction into usupro, 
and then its conversion into usurpo. The letter 
r seems to have been peculiarly subject to trans- 
position in an Italian mouth. Professor Key has 
himself given some examples of this change in his 
paper on “Metathesis,” Trans. of Philol. Soc., 
1854, p. 209. (Compare Diez, Roman. Gram- 
matik, vol. i. p. 248.) Thus, stravi and stratus 
are formed from sterno. Compare repo with 
serpo and éprw; rapax with &prat. In Greek 
there are @dpoos and Opdoos, Kdpros and xkpdros, 
kapdia and xpadia. The ancient town Croton be- 
comes Cotrone in Italian, which also has interpe- 
