Etymologically
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depravo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [deːˈpraː.woː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [deˈpraː.vo][1]

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

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