spicere

Spicere is a Latin verb meaning to look at, behold, or inspect. It is found in classical Latin texts as part of the present system of the third-conjugation -io verbs, and it is typically cited with its principal parts as spicio, spicere, spexi, spectum. From these parts, scholars derive the full set of forms used to express voice, mood, tense, and number.

The present active indicative forms follow the pattern of -io verbs: spicio, spicis, spicit, spicimus, spicitis, spiciunt. The imperfect is spiciebam, spiciebas, spiciebat, spiciebamus, spiciebatis, spiciebant. The future active is formed in the usual -iam/-ies/-iet pattern for -io verbs, yielding forms such as spiciam, spicies, spiciēt, spiciēmus, spiciētis, spiciant. The perfect active is spexi, the pluperfect spexeram, and the future perfect spexerō. The supine is spectum, used to form certain periphrastic constructions in combination with auxiliary verbs.

Usage and nuance: spicere conveys the act of looking at or inspecting something with attention, often taking a direct object in the accusative or governing other syntactic structures to indicate direction, display, or examination. In Latin, it can appear in both literal and metaphorical senses, including examining evidence, observing a scene, or surveying a landscape.

Related terms include specere and spectare, which cover similar senses of looking, as well as other verbs in the Latin repertoire describing perception and observation. Spicere is primarily of interest to students and scholars of Latin grammar and classical texts.