depravo

Forms

dēprāvō (present infinitive dēprāvāre, perfect active dēprāvāvī, supine dēprāvātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dē- + prāvus (“crooked”), a verb made from the adjective.^[2][3][1] De Vaan finds no etymology for prāvus.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Terence on,^[3] whose Phormio says that there is nothing that cannot be spoilt by being told badly.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means to make crooked, to distort or deform:^[2][5] Varro says few things are not distorted by age, and uses it of crooked legs that are set straight.^[2][5] Pliny the Elder notes that only in man are the eyes distorted, whence the surnames Strabo and Paetus.^[5] From Cicero on it means to lead someone away from a right opinion and to corrupt morally: Cicero writes that too great an abundance of everything had corrupted them.^[2] It also means to pervert ideas or twist words, and Quintilian has dēprāvāta imitātiō, a caricature.^[2] Döderlein sets it against corrumpere: dēprāvāre makes something worse but still curable, turned from its proper use, while corrumpere spoils it completely.^[6] English deprave comes from it, partly through Old French, in the late 14th century.^[7]

Timeline

• 190–159 BC – Terence of a story spoilt in the telling.^[2][3]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of distortion by age.^[2]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of moral corruption.^[2]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian of caricature.^[2]
• late 14th century – English deprave, from Latin, partly through Old French.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make crooked, distort, deform.^[2][5][1]
2. To mislead; to corrupt morally, deprave.^[2][5][1][8]
3. To pervert (ideas); to twist (words); dēprāvāta imitātiō, a caricature.^[2]

Word family

• dēprāvātiō

Related words

• prāvus
• prāvitās
• English deprave

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson