Etymologically
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defugio

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [deːˈfʊ.ɡi.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [deˈfuː.d͡ʒi.o][1]

Forms

dēfugiō (present infinitive dēfugere, perfect active dēfūgī); third (-iō variant) conjugation, no supine stem[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dē- (“away”) + fugiō (“to flee”).[2][3][1] De Vaan traces fugiō to Proto-Italic *fug-i- and Proto-Indo-European *bʰug- (“to flee”), cognate with Ancient Greek φεύγω (pheúgō, “to flee”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and the TLL find it first in Plautus;[4][3] in the Poenulus it means avoiding someone's authority.[3]

Semantic evolution

As a transitive verb it means escaping or shunning something unpleasant: Caesar has avoiding a man's company and conversation, and a battle,[5] and Cicero someone fleeing his country for Tarquinii.[2][5] It is also used of avoiding a task or responsibility.[2][5] Intransitively it means to escape by flight, as in Livy of a whole wing of an army throwing away its arms.[2] Stelten gives "flee, avoid, escape" for Church Latin.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of avoiding someone's authority.[3][7]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar, of shunning conversation and a battle.[5][7]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, of fleeing one's country.[2][7]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, of running away in battle.[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (transitive) To escape from, run away from; to shun, avoid (something unpleasant, a duty).[2][5][1]
  2. (intransitive) To make one's escape, flee; to keep clear of a duty.[2][1]

Word family

  • defuga

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de