abiungo

Forms

abiungō (present infinitive abiungere, perfect active abiūnxī, supine abiūnctum); third conjugation^[1] The spelling abjungō is also found.^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ab- + iungō (“to join, yoke”).^[2][3] The simple verb iungō goes back to Proto-Italic *jung-e/o- and to the nasal present Proto-Indo-European *(H)iunégti (“to yoke”).^[4] Cognate with Sanskrit युनज्मि (yunájmi, “I yoke”), Ancient Greek ζεύγνυμι (zeúgnumi) and Lithuanian jùngti (“to tie, join, yoke”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Cicero, Catullus and Caesar.^[2][5] In a letter to Atticus, Cicero writes that Demosthenes had kept away from this wrangling courtroom style of speaking.^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

Caesar uses it of Labienus and his legions cut off,^[2][7] and Virgil and Propertius in the literal sense of unyoking: a ploughman unyokes a steer that mourns its brother's death.^[2][6] Statius uses it for drawing a goddess away from a place and, in the Thebaid, for making a cleft by splitting.^[2]

Medieval writers used it for separating or removing,^[8] as Lupus of Ferrières of the wretch cut off from God for ever;^[8] Ecclesiastical Latin also has it for unloosing.^[9]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for keeping away from a style of speaking.^[6][5]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it of severed locks of hair.^[2][5]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of a commander cut off from the army.^[2][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it for unyoking a steer.^[2][5]
• c. 45–96 AD – Statius uses it for making something by splitting.^[2][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To separate, detach.^[2][6]
2. To unyoke.^[2][6]
3. To keep (oneself) away from an activity.^[2][10]
4. To make by splitting or rending.^[2]
5. (Medieval Latin) To remove.^[8]

Related words

• adiungō
• coniungō
• dēiungō
• disiungō
• iniungō
• iungō
• sēiungō
• subiungō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
10. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn