deflagro

Forms

dēflagrō (present infinitive dēflagrāre, perfect active dēflagrāvī, supine dēflagrātum); first conjugation^[1] Apuleius has the form dēfragl-.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin dē- + flagrō (“to burn, blaze”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan takes the simple verb to be made from an adjective ⟨*flagro-⟩ “burning”, which he traces to Proto-Italic *flagro- and Proto-Indo-European *bʰlg-ro- (“burning”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and the OLD record it first in Ennius,^[4][2] transitively: shrines “burnt down by the flame” (fana flamma dēflagrāta).^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

It means “to burn down”, both of fire destroying something and, intransitively, of a building being consumed;^[2][5] the intransitive use is frequent only in Cicero,^[5] who reports that the temple of Diana at Ephesus burned down on the night Alexander was born (eadem Dianae Ephesiae templum dēflagrāvisse).^[5] Vitruvius uses it of the sun parching the regions it passes close to.^[2]

Figuratively it is said of feelings that die down or burn out: Livy has angers “burning out”, and Lucan says of threatening men that they lose their ardour.^[2] Ecclesiastical and medieval Latin kept the senses “burn down” and “be consumed by fire”.^[6][7]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius writes of shrines burnt by flame.^[2][4][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of temples and houses burning down.^[2][5][8]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of the sun scorching land.^[2][8]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of anger dying down.^[2][8]
• 39–65 AD – Lucan uses it of men losing their ardour.^[2][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To destroy by fire, burn down; of the sun, to parch.^[2][5]
2. (intransitive) To be burnt down, be consumed by fire.^[2][5][6]
3. (figurative) Of feelings, to die down, abate; of people, to lose ardour.^[2]

Word family

• dēflagrātiō

Related words

• conflagrō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c 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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de