depressus

Forms

dēpressus (feminine dēpressa, neuter dēpressum; comparative dēpressior, superlative dēpressissimus); first/second-declension participle^[1]

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the past participle from Latin dēprimō (“to press down”).^[1][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In a speech Cato uses it of slopes reaching downwards beside steep places.^[1]

Semantic evolution

It is low-lying, situated deep down, as Virgil's low valleys, or of buildings low.^[1] Figuratively it lacks moral elevation, base or mean, as Seneca says that the higher a man raises himself the lower he is, and of style it is pedestrian.^[1] Of sounds it is low-pitched or subdued: the Rhetorica ad Herennium recommends a voice as calm and low as possible.^[1] Köbler's first author is Cicero.^[3]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato of slopes.^[1]
• 86/82 BC – The Rhetorica ad Herennium of a low voice.^[1][3]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of low valleys.^[1]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of baseness.^[1]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Low-lying, low; sloping downwards.^[1]
2. Base, mean; of style, pedestrian.^[1]
3. Of sounds, low-pitched, subdued.^[1]

Related words

• dēprimō

Usage notes

The TLL records a fourth-declension noun dēpressus only once, in a grammarian's list of idioms.^[4]

References

1. ^ 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
2. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften