intercipiebant

Intercipiebant is a Latin verb form derived from intercipio, intercipere, intercepi, interceptum. It is the imperfect active indicative, 3rd person plural, and corresponds to the sense “they were intercepting” or, in context, a past action that was ongoing or repeated. As an imperfect form, it does not function as a simple past point in time; instead it conveys duration or habit in the past.

In form, intercipiebant comes from the third-conjugation -io class of verbs. The imperfect active endings for this class are -ebam, -ebas, -ebat, -ebamus, -ebatis, -ebant, attached to the present stem intercip- with the characteristic i before the vowel change. The principal parts of intercipio are intercipio, intercipere, intercepi, interceptum; the perfect third-person plural would be interceperunt, not intercipiebant. The participle used for passive or perfect constructions is interceptus.

Usage in Latin is common in military, diplomatic, and legal prose, where actions such as blocking a convoy, seizing letters, or stopping messengers are described. An example is: Hostes nuntios intercipiebant, meaning “The enemies were intercepting the messengers.” This form emphasizes the continuity or routine nature of the action in the past, rather than a single completed event.

Etymologically, intercipiebant combines inter- “between” and capere “to take” (with the expected phonetic change in the -io verb class). It is related to English intercept through the same Latin root. Related forms include intercipio (present), intercepi (perfect), and interceptus (supine/participial form).