Etymologically
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depressus

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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]

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