demergo

Forms

dēmergō (present infinitive dēmergere, perfect active dēmersī, supine dēmersum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dē- (“down”) + mergō (“to dip, sink”).^[2][1] De Vaan traces mergō to Proto-Italic *mezge/o- and Proto-Indo-European *mesg- (“to sink, wash”).^[3] Cognate with Lithuanian mazgóti (“to wash”) and Latvian mazgât (“to wash”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates mergō from Cicero,^[3] and the OLD's first example of this compound is his translation of Aratus, where a crow plunges its head under the water.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means to submerge something, to sink a ship or its crew, and to plunge or dip into a liquid, as Lucretius' red-hot iron plunged into cold water.^[2][4] Pliny the Elder uses it of a river swallowed up by the earth, and Cicero of stars that sink below the horizon.^[2] It also means to bury or conceal, as Apuleius' sword buried up to the hilt.^[2] Figuratively it is to overwhelm or engulf, as Cicero writes of laws overwhelmed by someone's wealth.^[2][1] Church Latin glosses it to sink, drown, submerge, plunge, swallow.^[5]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a crow dipping its head and of laws overwhelmed.^[2][6]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of iron plunged into water.^[2][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of a river swallowed by the earth.^[2][6]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius of a sword buried to the hilt.^[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To submerge; to sink a ship; to plunge, dip, immerse.^[2][4][5][1]
2. To cause to be swallowed up in the earth.^[2]
3. Of a heavenly body, to cause to set.^[2]
4. To bury, sink, conceal; to bury a weapon; to draw in.^[2][1]
5. To overwhelm, engulf in misfortune.^[2][1]

Word family

• demersio
• dēmersus

Related words

• mergō
• submergō
• immergō

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 n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de