demissus

Forms

dēmissus (feminine dēmissa, neuter dēmissum, comparative dēmissior); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is the past participle of dēmittō (“to let down, lower”), used as an adjective.^[2][1][3] ⟨dēmittō⟩ is from dē- and mittō (“to let go, send”), which de Vaan derives from Proto-Indo-European *m(e)ith₂- (“to exchange, remove”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Terence.^[5] Lucretius uses it of the moon's lower course, further from the sky.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is low or low-lying, and in Varro of a person stooping close to the ground; it is also sloping down, as the scythes in Curtius that slanted down from both sides, and hanging down, as a tunic reaching to the ankles.^[2] Of people it is lowly, living in humble obscurity, as in Sallust; abject, as when Cicero calls it the mark of a narrow, abject mind to scorn a triumph; or modest and subdued, of an orator's style.^[2] It also means dejected: Cicero describes a man who from cheerful and happy had become humbled and downcast.^[2]

Church Latin has it for lowly, humble.^[6]

Timeline

• 190–159 BC – Terence.^[5]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of the moon's low course.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of dejection and of a subdued style.^[2][5]
• 86–34 BC – Sallust of a lowly life.^[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Low, low-lying.^[2][1]
2. Sloping down; of clothes, hanging down.^[2]
3. Lowly, humble; abject, mean; modest, unassuming.^[2][1][6]
4. dejected, downcast, despondent.^[2][1]

Related words

• dēmittō
• mittō
• humilis

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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 d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson