delibo

Forms

dēlībō (present infinitive dēlībāre, perfect active dēlībāvī, supine dēlībātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dē- (“from, off”) + lībō (“to take a little; to pour as an offering”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan follows Steinbauer in taking lībō as made from lībum (“sacrificial cake”), which he traces to Proto-Italic *leifo- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂le/oibʰ-o-, cognate with Ancient Greek ἀλείφω (aleíphō, “to anoint”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it first in Ennius,^[3] whose Annals call a man flōs dēlībātus populī, “the choice flower of the people”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its basic sense is to take off a small part: Cicero says our souls are drawn from the universal divine mind, and Paulus' Festus uses it of drawing off water.^[2][3] It then means to take a little from something, so diminishing it: Lucretius says nothing lessens the mind's peace, and Favorinus in Gellius speaks of people who have their dinners merely sampled so as not to tire themselves by eating.^[2][5] Mela uses it of offering a small part to the gods.^[2] Livy has it of having a first taste of a new honour, and Pliny the Younger of touching on part of a task.^[2] Stelten gives “pluck, gather, take away a little, sacrifice”.^[6]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius, of the choice flower of the people.^[2][3][7]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius, of lessening the mind's peace.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of souls drawn from the divine mind.^[2][7]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, of a first taste of an honour.^[2][7]
• 43/44 AD – Mela, of an offering to the gods.^[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To take off a small part, skim off; to draw off (water).^[2][5][1]
2. To pick out as the choicest part.^[2]
3. To take a little from, diminish, wear away; to taste (food).^[2][5][1]
4. To offer a small part to the gods.^[2][6]
5. To detract from, impair.^[2]
6. To have a first taste of; to touch on (a subject); to do part of (a task).^[2]

Word family

• dēlībāmentum
• dēlībātiō
• indēlībātus

Related words

• lībō
• lībum
• lībātiō

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 i j k l m n o p q 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. ^ 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 d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de