I am interested, did Latin have a word meaning specifically "to listen", as opposed to "hear"? Because it did have a word for "look" (spectare), as opposed to "see" (videre).
1 Answer
There is auscultō, -āre, "listen to, pay attention to, give heed to".
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3Lewis and Short on the chronological distribution of ausculto: "in the anteclass. per. freq., but not in Lucr.; in the class. per. rare" Mar 6 at 5:22
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4@Herodotean: Interesting that it had declined in frequency in the classical period, but presumably then revived at at some stage, since its descendants are common words in several modern romance languages — écouter in French, ascoltare in Italian… Mar 6 at 11:11
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3In French we have both écouter (listen) and ausculter (for a physician: auscultate, examine, listen to the patient's chest)– StefMar 6 at 12:35
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1@PeterLeFanuLumsdaine: some other ante-classical words also disappear, or almost disappear, during (part of) the classical period only to resurface later. caballus comes to mind: it appears in Lucilius, resurfaces in Horace and Petronius, and then of course becomes cavallo, caballo, and cheval. Mar 7 at 20:11