decollo

Forms

dēcollō (present infinitive dēcollāre, perfect active dēcollāvī, supine dēcollātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dē- + collum (“neck”), with the verbal ending of the first conjugation.^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first instance is in a fragment of the comic poet Caecilius Statius, in tuo collo est: decolles cave (“it is on your neck: take care you don't take it off”), which Nonius explains as “to take off from the neck”.^[2][5][3]

Semantic evolution

Lucilius used it figuratively for depriving oneself of something.^[5] The sense “to behead” appears in the historian Fenestella, as cited by the grammarian Diomedes, and becomes common from Seneca and Petronius on, mostly in post-classical Latin.^[5][3] Suetonius speaks of a soldier skilled at beheading.^[5][3] The Vulgate uses it for the beheading of John in Matthew 14:10.^[3][5]

In Medieval Latin it kept the sense “behead”, sometimes merely “strike down, kill”; it was also said of birds tearing off a head, and figuratively meant to cut off or put to death.^[6]

Timeline

• 230/220–168 BC – Caecilius Statius has it in the sense “take off from the neck”.^[2][3][7]
• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses it figuratively, “to deprive”.^[5][7]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it for beheading people.^[5][3][7]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius speaks of a soldier expert at beheading.^[5][3][7]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it for a beheading in Matthew 14:10.^[3][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To behead, decapitate; to have someone beheaded.^[2][5]
2. To take off from the neck (as explained by Nonius).^[2][5]
3. (figurative) To deprive or rob of something.^[5]
4. (Medieval Latin) To strike down, kill; to tear off the head of a bird; figuratively, to cut off.^[6]

Word family

• decollatio

Related words

• collum
• English decollate

Usage notes

The grammarian Diomedes reports that among the old writers the verb meant “to deceive”, and that they said “struck with the axe” rather than “beheaded”.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de