defaeco

Forms

dēfaecō (present infinitive dēfaecāre, perfect active dēfaecāvī, supine dēfaecātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin dē- + faex (“dregs”), with the verbal suffix ⟨-ō⟩.^[2][3] Plautus also has the form dēficō.^[2][4] Its past participle dēfaecātus is the source of English defecate.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first,^[2][6] in the figurative sense of clearing or cheering the mind: animus defaecatus is an untroubled mood in the Aulularia.^[7][6]

Semantic evolution

L&S call it ante-classical and post-Augustan.^[4] Its literal use is for clearing wine of its dregs, in Columella and Pliny the Elder;^[4][7][6] it also meant to wash or clean in general, and to purify or refine.^[7] Christian writers used it of purifying the flesh from the stain of vices.^[7] In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant to cleanse, refine or purify.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a cleared, untroubled mind.^[7][6][9]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of clearing wine.^[6][9]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of wine.^[4][9]
• c. 340–397 AD – Ambrose writes of flesh purified from all stain of vices.^[7][9]
• 1570s – English borrows defecate in the sense of purifying from dregs.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To clear of dregs, to strain, to clarify (wine and similar liquids).^[2][4]
2. To clean, wash.^[7]
3. (figurative) To purify, refine; to make clear and cheerful.^[4][7]

Word family

• defaecabilis
• dēfaecātiō

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de