Etymologically
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depereo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [deːˈpɛ.re.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [deˈpɛː.re.o][1]

Forms

dēpereō (present infinitive dēperīre, perfect active dēperiī or dēperīvī, supine dēperitum); irregular conjugation, third person-only in the passive[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dē- + pereō (“to perish”).[2][1][3] pereō is a compound of eō (“to go”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *ei- (“to go”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₁ei- (“to go”).[4] Paulus' epitome of Festus explains it as "to perish utterly".[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first, in the transitive sense: a woman is told how desperately he loves her.[2]

Semantic evolution

Its basic sense is to perish or die, as in Varro.[2] Livy uses it hyperbolically, of a man dying of love for a girl, and Plautus already has the transitive use, to love someone to distraction.[2] Of things it is to be destroyed or lost: Lucretius says that nothing of matter is ever lost, Caesar that ships were lost in a storm, and Cicero asks that no sheet of a manuscript be lost.[5][2] The Vulgate and Gregory of Tours have the future deperiet.[3][5] Church Latin glosses it perish, be lost.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of desperate love.[2][7]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius of matter that is never lost.[5][7]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar of ships lost in a storm.[5][7]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of dying of love.[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To perish, die; hyperbolically, to die of love.[2][5][6][1]
  2. Of things, to be destroyed, be lost, go to waste.[2][5][1]
  3. To be desperately in love with, love to distraction.[2][1]

Word family

  • deperītiō

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 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 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de