Etymologically
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defodio

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [deːˈfɔ.di.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [deˈfɔː.di.o][1]

Forms

dēfodiō (present infinitive dēfodere, perfect active dēfōdī, supine dēfossum); third (-iō variant) conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dē- (“down”) + fodiō (“to dig”).[2][3][1] De Vaan traces fodiō to Proto-Italic *foþ-i- and Proto-Indo-European *bʰodʰ-i- (“to poke, dig”).[4] Cognate with Hittite padda- (“to dig”) and Lithuanian bèsti (“to stick, drive in, dig”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL dates it from Plautus,[3] who in the Aulularia has a man bury his treasure in the middle of the hearth, and in the Mostellaria a ghost say he was buried unburied in the house.[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short note that the sense to bury is the more frequent and quite classical, the sense to dig downward rarer.[5] It means to put underground, bury, and so to embed something in the ground, as Vitruvius' stakes, or to plant, as Lucretius' young shoots.[2] It also means to make by digging, as Virgil's dug-out caves, or to excavate the ground;[2][5] Horace has the miser burying his silver in a dug-out hole.[2][5] In Seneca the neuter participle is an underground chamber.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of burying treasure and a murdered guest.[3][2][6]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius of planting shoots.[2][6]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of dug-out caves.[2][6]
  • c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius of stakes set in the ground.[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To put underground, bury; to dig manure into the soil.[2][5][1]
  2. To fix in the ground, embed; to plant.[2][1]
  3. To make by digging; to excavate; as a noun, the neuter participle is an underground chamber.[2][5][1]
  4. To hide, conceal.[1]

Word family

  • defossus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de