This basis, although often viewed as provided by augur, should be more efficiently derived from auc-tor sum: it could account for the semantic development of augeЕЌ, from вЂto growвЂ™ to вЂto make growвЂ™. its meaning вЂto increaseвЂ™), secondarily built in Italic on a basis aug. The verb is not an IE causative but an essive or fientive (cf. (3) From this Latin periphrasis the adjective and the noun became probably independent units, furnishing then a nominal basis which can explain the formation of augeЕЌ.

Such a verbal periphrasis is an isolated phenomenon in Latin, but it could be due to the fact that it consists in an old juridical expression. Negant enim quicquam esse Deo auctore traditum: nullum probant de religione dogma, nihil veri. Rightly indeed is this august sacrament honoured by social worship. In both languages the phrase has a directive and prospective sense. Recte quidem augustum hoc Sacramentum cultu sociali honoratur, in quo non solum gratia divina sed auctor ipse gratiae, Christus Dominus, continetur. (2) The existence of the Vedic periphrastic future associating the suffix *-tГ©r and the verb вЂto beвЂ™ (dДЃtДЃsmi < *dДЃ-trМҐ-as-mi) invites us to consider this Latin expression too as a verbal periphrasis. Thus the agent noun auctor appears as secondary to the adjective. (вЂto be the guarantor or the responsible ofвЂ™), where auctor is a noun. The proposal is based on the following line of argumentation: (1) This archaic phrase must be distinguished from the current/classical construction auctor esse + gen. Such a periphrasis could also throw light on the tricky relationship, from both morphological and semantical point of view, between augeЕЌ et auctor. (вЂto adviseвЂ™), auctor should be considered as an adjective. This chapter argues that in the archaic phrase auctor esse + quid or ut + subj.

Auctor esse