delinquo

Forms

dēlinquō (present infinitive dēlinquere, perfect active dēlīquī, supine dēlictum); third conjugation^[1] Livy's manuscripts have a perfect delinquērunt.^[2] Biblical Latin also has dēlinquī.^[3]

Etymology

It is from Latin dē- + linquō (“to leave”).^[4][1][3] De Vaan derives ⟨linquō⟩ from the nasal present Proto-Indo-European *li-n-kʷ- (“to leave”), cognate with Sanskrit रिणक्ति (riṇákti, “leaves”), Ancient Greek λείπω (leípō, “to leave”) and Gothic 𐌻𐌴𐌹𐍈𐌰𐌽 (leiƕan, “to lend”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has its moral sense, “to do wrong”: “whoever has erred will be beaten, whoever has not will drink”.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

Its literal sense, to be lacking, fail, is rare; the historian Caelius has grain running short, and the word is also used of an eclipse.^[4][2] Most uses are moral: to fall short, misbehave, do wrong, from Plautus on, with an internal accusative to commit an offence (“the country people don't do anything wrong, do they?”) or with the person wronged (“what wrong have I done you?”).^[4]

Church Latin has it for fail, sin, do wrong, offend.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of doing wrong.^[4][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of misbehaviour.^[4][6]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate.^[3][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To be lacking, fail; of a heavenly body, to be eclipsed.^[4][2][1]
2. To fall short of a standard, do wrong, offend, transgress, err.^[4][1][7]
3. To commit an offence; to wrong someone.^[4][1]

Word family

• dēlictor
• dēlictum
• dēlicuus
• dēlinquentia
• dēliquiō
• dēliquium
• indēlictus

Related words

• dērelinquō
• relinquō
• linquō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson