Etymologically
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depravatio

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Forms

dēprāvātiō f (genitive dēprāvātiōnis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dēprāvō + -tiō.[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is attested from Cicero on.[3][4] In On Ends he uses it of the body that is distorted and deformed in posture and movement.[2][5][3]

Semantic evolution

Cicero used it both of physical deformity (of the face, of the limbs) and of the mind: a depravity and foulness of the soul, a distortion of the meaning of a word, a corruption of customs, and the perversity that lets superstition overcome reason.[5][3][2] Lewis & Short note that it is frequent in Cicero and rare elsewhere.[5] Seneca has the distortions of the feet, hands and joints.[5][3]

Christian writers used it of doctrine and human nature: Tertullian of the corruption of the Gospel, Lactantius of the depravity of human nature, and Hilary of Poitiers of the corruption of the faith.[3] Ecclesiastical Latin gives it the sense “depravity”.[6] French dépravation and Catalan depravació continue it.[1]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of bodily deformity and of moral perversity.[2][3][4]
  • 4 BC–AD 65 – Seneca uses it of distorted limbs.[5][3][4]
  • c. 160–220 – Tertullian speaks of the corruption of the Gospel.[3][4]
  • c. 250–317 – Lactantius uses it of the depravity of human nature.[3][4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A distortion of the body or face, deformity.[2][5][3]
  2. Moral or intellectual perversity; corruption of the mind or of customs.[2][5][3]
  3. A distortion of an idea or of a word's meaning, perversion.[2][5]
  4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) depravity; corruption of doctrine.[6][3]
  • English depravation

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h 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