arăta

Where it comes from

Several hypotheses exist; one most often proposed is Vulgar Latin *arrēctāre (whence also Portuguese arreitar and Neapolitan arrezzà/arrizzà), from Latin rēctus (“straight”), but the phonetic evolution would be irregular in this case; another possibility is Latin ratāre, as a frequentative of reor (“consider”) (past participle ratus), or from a Vulgar Latin ēlatāre, as a frequentative of efferō (“bring out or forth; produce, yield; emit”) (past participle ēlātus). One theory suggests it is the result of the convergence of three originally separate verbs: in addition to ēlatāre producing the standard form arăta, Latin *elitāre (from litō, litāre (“obtain or promise good omens”)) produces the mostly regional or archaic variant form areta and *arreptāre (from arreptus, past participle of arripiō (“seize; procure, appropriate”)) produces the obsolete arreta; these verbs then gradually merged together phonetically. Other etymologies link a Vulgar Latin *arreptāre instead to a contraction of ad-reputāre, but this is less likely.