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defleo

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word defleo

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 250–184 BC, Plautus
Ultimate origin
Latin (fleō)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin fleo
Latin defleo

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈdeː.fɫe.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈdɛː.fle.o][1]

Forms

dēfleō (present infinitive dēflēre, perfect active dēflēvī, supine dēflētum); second conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dē- + fleō (“to weep”).[2][3] De Vaan traces ⟨fleō⟩ to Proto-Italic *flē- and Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₁- (“to bleat, cry”), cognate with Latvian blêt (“to bleat”) and Old English blætan (“to bleat”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Plautus, Lucretius and Cicero on;[3] in Plautus' Captivi someone asks “should I not weep for such a young man?”[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to weep for the dead, and to mourn the loss of a thing: in Plautus a parasite laments the dinners he has seen die.[2] Lucretius has mourners who wept over the burned body.[5] It is also to lament an event, as Cicero's departure which his friend had often bewailed, and to lament in writing, as Seneca of a historian who mourned the civil wars.[2] Rarely, without an object, it is to weep bitterly.[2][1]

Church Latin glosses it “weep over, bewail, lament”.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of mourning a young man.[2][7]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius of mourning the dead.[5][7]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of lamenting a departure.[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To weep for, bewail; to mourn the loss of.[2][5][1][6]
  2. To lament, deplore; to lament in writing.[2][1]
  3. To weep bitterly.[2][1]

Word family

  • defletio
  • indēflētus
  • affleō
  • diffleō
  • effleō
  • fleō

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 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. ^ 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 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. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry

“Defleo.” Etymologically, 19 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/defleo. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·