caveo

From Proto-Italic *kawēō, from earlier *kawējō, from Proto-Italic stative *(s)kewh₁-éh₁-(ye)-ti, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewh₁- (“to perceive, pay attention”).

Cognate with Ancient Greek κοέω (koéō), Sanskrit कवि (kaví, “wise, poet, seer, sage”), Lithuanian kavoti (“safeguard, tend”), Russian чу́ять (čújatʹ), Old Armenian ցուցանեմ (cʻucʻanem, “I show”), English show.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈka.we.oː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkaː.ve.o]

caveō (present infinitive cavēre, perfect active cāvī, supine cautum); second conjugation

1. to take precautions, beware, take care; to guard against, attend to a thing for a person, provide

   Synonyms: cūrō, accūrō, servō, videō, cōnsulō, prōcūrō, colō, cōnsultō

   Caveat emptor.

   Buyer beware.

   1. (with accusative) to beware of, keep away from, avoid
      • c. 27 CE – 66 CE, Petronius, Satyricon 29:

        Cave canem.

        Beware of the dog.

2. (with ablative, with dative, with ab, with cum, with nē, with ut) to guard against, to be on one's guard against, to take care that (not)
   1. (imperative) beware not to!, refrain from!, make sure that not, mind that you don't!

      Cave sīs tē videam!

      Make sure I don't see you again!

      • c. 84 BCE – 54 BCE, Catullus, Carmina 50.13–14:

        Nunc audāx cave sīs, precēsque nostrās/ōrāmus, cave dēspuās, ocelle!

        Beware of being haughty now, I beg you, and don't reject my desperate request, my jewel!

3. (with dative) to look out in the interests of
4. (law) to make legal provisions (for or against), to order, decree, stipulate
5. (law) to give surety or guarantees, to secure bail; to pledge, certify
   1. (with ab) to procure bail or surety from

The primary sense ("beware") may either govern a noun in the accusative or a subjunctive clause joined with nē, with the meaning "beware not to, make sure that you don't". However, the latter use became idiomatic early on with the particle nē omitted. In either case, the semantically-weakened cavĕ regularly has a short final vowel through iambic shortening. C.f. the parallel positive vidĕ (“see that, make sure to”).

¹At least one rare poetic syncopated perfect form is attested.

• ⇒ Vulgar Latin: *cavicare
  • Old French: chuer
    • French: choyer

• “caveō” on page 315 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (2nd ed., 2012)
• “caveo”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “caveo”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• caveo in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • (ambiguous) to prescribe in one's will: testamento aliquid cavere (Fin. 2. 31)