dedisco

Forms

dēdiscō (present infinitive dēdiscere, perfect active dēdidicī); third conjugation, no passive, no supine stem^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dē- + discō (“to learn”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan reconstructs discō as Proto-Italic *dikske/o-, from a reduplicated iterative Proto-Indo-European *di-dḱ-sḱ-e/o- (“to take, accept”), that is, to take in repeatedly.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Plautus on,^[3] who has a man who unlearns what he has learned.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

It is to put out of one's mind, unlearn or forget: Cicero writes that a man must learn and unlearn much, and of words to be unlearned.^[2][5] With an infinitive it is to lose the habit of doing something or to forget how: Seneca says that whoever has learned to die has unlearned slavery.^[2] Lewis & Short call it rare but classical.^[5] Lactantius sets it against learning.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of unlearning what was learned.^[5][3][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of learning and unlearning.^[2][5][7]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of unlearning slavery.^[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To unlearn, forget.^[2][5][1]
2. With an infinitive, to lose the habit of, forget how to.^[2]

Related words

• discō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de