Excerpere

Excerpere is a Latin verb meaning to extract or select passages from a larger text, especially for quotation or study. In Latin usage, it denotes the act of picking out relevant portions to be kept, cited, or included in an edition or compilation. The sense is akin to pruning or clipping a text to its essential parts. The word is typically analyzed as ex- meaning “out” plus cerpere (related to carpere, “to pluck”), forming a verb that emphasizes removal of material as a unit.

The noun excerptum (excerption) is derived from this verb and is the ancestor of the modern English excerpt. The exact Latin forms vary with tense and mood; the infinitive excerpere is attested in medieval and scholarly Latin, though the verb is relatively rare in surviving classical texts. In English, excerption and excerpt are used to refer to a short passage or the act of selecting such passages; the more common modern term is excerpt.

In textual criticism and philology, excerption describes the practice of assembling a curated set of passages from one or more sources to illustrate a point or to create a convenient reference, often used in scholarly editions, commentaries, or lexicographic works. The concept underpins standard editorial practices of quotation and citation, though contemporary usage more frequently employs the terms excerpt or quotation rather than the Latin form.

See also: excerpt, excerption, excerptum, quotation.