percepere

Percepere is a term found in Latin-language usage, generally treated as an alternate or variant spelling of the standard verb percipere, which means to perceive, notice, or become aware of. In classical Latin, the principal form of the verb is percipere, part of the third-conjugation-io group, with meanings spanning physical perception, mental awareness, and figurative grasping of ideas.

Etymology and attestations on record indicate that percepere appears only sporadically, typically in later Latin or medieval manuscripts and dictionaries as a nonstandard orthographic variant. The dominant classical form remains percipere, and most linguistic references list percepere as a historical or orthographic curiosity rather than a regularly conjugated form. As such, modern Latin grammars usually treat percepere as superseded by percipere in standard usage.

Semantics of the verb are broad. In everyday sense, to perceive entails sensing through the senses or becoming conscious of something. In a cognitive sense, it can mean to understand, realize, or grasp an argument or piece of information. The verb also extends metaphorically to seize or apprehend opportunities, evidence, or conclusions. In Romance languages, descendants of the Latin verb appear with related meanings, such as percepire in Italian, percibir in Spanish, and percevoir in French, illustrating the semantic core of perceiving and apprehending.

Related forms include the noun perceptio (perception), the adjective perceptus (perceived, apprehended), and the verb percipere, whose principal parts are percipio, percipere, perceptus. Percepere thus sits at a linguistic fringe: informative for historical study and orthographic variation, but not a standard identifier of classical Latin morphology.