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deporto

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word deporto

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 250–184 BC, Plautus
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European (*pr̥to-)

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [deːˈpɔr.toː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [deˈpɔr.to][1]

Forms

dēportō (present infinitive dēportāre, perfect active dēportāvī, supine dēportātum); first conjugation[1] Terence has an archaic passive infinitive dēportārier.[2]

Etymology

It is formed from dē- (“down, away”) and portō (“to carry”).[3][4][2] De Vaan takes ⟨portō⟩ as probably a verb made from a noun ⟨*porto-⟩ “passage, crossing”, from Proto-Indo-European *pr̥to- (“crossed”), cognate with Umbrian portatu (“let him carry”) and Sanskrit पिपर्ति (píparti, “brings across”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has “what did he order to be brought to us?” in the Pseudolus, and in a fragment “have him sewn into a sack and taken out to sea”.[3]

Semantic evolution

It is to bring or convey to a place, as in Plautus and Lucilius' runaway taken back in handcuffs, to take out to sea for drowning, and of a river to carry down, as Cicero's Indus that brings down a mass of seeds.[3][2] In particular it is to bring back to Rome from the provinces, as Cicero's charge that Verres took home the best pictures, and to take home, as Cato's rule that no olives be carried off the farm.[3][2][1] It is to transport someone to an island or place of exile, as in Pliny the Elder, and so to banish.[3][1]

Pseudo-Asconius distinguishes asportāre, to carry something off so that it is lost, from dēportāre, to move it to another place.[4] Church Latin glosses it “banish”.[6]

Timeline

  • 234–149 BC – Cato of carrying off olives.[3][7]
  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of things brought.[3][7]
  • c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius of a runaway brought back.[3][7]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of pictures brought home from a province.[3][7]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of a boy taken to a desert island.[3][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To carry, convey (to a place); to carry down (of a river);[3][2][1] to take out to sea.[3]
  2. To bring back (from a province); to take home.[3][2][1]
  3. To transport (into exile), banish, deport.[3][1][6]

Word family

  • dēportātiō

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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry

“Deporto.” Etymologically, 19 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/deporto. Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.

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