decutio

Forms

dēcutiō (present infinitive dēcutere, perfect active dēcussī, supine dēcussum); third (-iō variant) conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dē- + quatiō (“to shake”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan traces quatiō to Proto-Italic *kwat-i-; he compares Germanic verbs for "shake" such as Old High German scutten, but thinks the root may not be Indo-European at all.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL reads it from Plautus on.^[3] Lewis & Short note it is rare before the Augustan period and absent from Caesar and Cicero.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It means to make something fall by shaking or striking, to knock off or down: Propertius has quinces shaken from the bough, Livy the tall poppy heads struck off with a stick, and Virgil a heifer shaking the dew from the grass.^[5][2] Caelius, writing to Cicero, uses it of qualities shed with age.^[2] It also means to dislodge, as a garrison of Labienus driven out in the Bellum Africum,^[2] and to knock down or overturn: Livy has walls and towers not only struck by lightning but thrown down.^[2] Pliny the Elder uses it of olives knocked from the tree.^[5] In manuscripts it is often confused with discutiō.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, its first use according to the TLL.^[3]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of a heifer shaking off the dew.^[2]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of poppy heads struck off and towers thrown down.^[5][2]
• 57/46–12 BC – Propertius of quinces shaken from the bough.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To shake, strike or knock off or down;^[2][5][1] (figurative) to shed, cast off.^[2][5][1]
2. To force from a position, dislodge.^[2]
3. To throw down, overturn.^[2][1]

Word family

• decussio

Related words

• quatiō
• concutiō
• discutiō
• excutiō
• percutiō

Usage notes

Tertullian has a separate fourth-conjugation dēcutiō (dēcutīre), "to flay", made from dē and cutis.^[3][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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 g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press