Etymologically
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decollo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [deːˈkɔl.loː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [deˈkɔl.lo][1]

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

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