Etymologically
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deperdo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [deːˈpɛr.doː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [deˈpɛr.do][1]

Forms

dēperdō (present infinitive dēperdere, perfect active dēperdidī, supine dēperditum); third conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dē- + perdō (“to destroy, lose”).[2][3][1] perdō is made from per- and dō (“to give, put”),[1] which de Vaan traces to Proto-Indo-European *deh₃- (“to give”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL reads it from Cicero and Lucretius on.[3]

Semantic evolution

It means to lose or be deprived of something.[2][5][1] In law it is to lose permanently: the jurist Gaius defines as lost what has ceased to exist.[2][5] In the passive it means to be utterly lost or ruined: Propertius compares a lover's state to Io's undoing, and Phaedrus has a cobbler ruined by poverty.[2][5] Suetonius uses the participle of being desperately in love.[5] Manuscripts sometimes confuse it with disperdō.[3] Stelten gives "destroy, ruin, lose" for Church Latin.[6]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, its first use according to the TLL.[3]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius.[3]
  • 57/46–12 BC – Propertius of Io's undoing.[2]
  • 140–180 AD – Gaius of what has ceased to exist.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To lose, be deprived of.[2][5][1]
  2. (law) To lose permanently.[2]
  3. (passive) To be utterly lost or ruined;[2][5][6] (participle) desperately in love.[2][5][6]

Word family

  • dēperditiō
  • dēperditum

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e 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 d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson