Etymologically
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derelinquo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [deː.rɛˈlɪŋ.kʷoː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [de.reˈliŋ.kʷo][1]

Forms

dērelinquō (present infinitive dērelinquere, perfect active dērelīquī, supine dērelictum); third conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dē- + relinquō (“to leave behind”).[2][1][3] That verb is a compound of re- and linquō (“to leave”), whose forms de Vaan regards as inherited, from a present Proto-Indo-European *li-n-kʷ- (“to leave”).[4]

Cognate with Old Irish léicid (“to let go, leave”), Sanskrit रिणक्ति (riṇákti, “leaves”) and Ancient Greek λείπω (leípō, “to leave”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Varro,[4] but the TLL and Lewis & Short cite it already in Plautus' Truculentus, where a speaker complains of being treated quasi pro derelicta, as if abandoned.[3][5]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it means to abandon wholly:[5] Catullus has a mind left lying in deep mud, and Cicero saw Tiberius Gracchus deserted by Quintus Tubero and his friends.[2] Cicero also uses it of farmers abandoning their land and of sowing in uncultivated and abandoned ground,[5][6] and Caesar of ships left stranded by the tide.[5] In law prō dērelictō habēre is to treat a possession as abandoned, and jurists use the verb for giving up a claim.[6][2] It could also mean to leave behind at death: Sallust has a son whom his father had left a private person,[2][6] and in Late Latin it is to bequeath, as Arnobius has books left behind and Jerome a large debt.[5]

Christian writers use it often for forsaking God or being forsaken by him: the Vulgate has it with Dominum as object, and the TLL records it in the Old Latin Bible, Tertullian and the Vulgate.[5][3] Ecclesiastical dictionaries give it as abandon, forsake, desert.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus has quasi pro derelicta, “as if abandoned”.[3][8]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of abandoned land or buildings.[2][4][8]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of deserted friends and abandoned farmland.[2][5][8]
  • 86–34 BC – Sallust uses it of a son left behind at a father's death.[2][8]
  • 297–310 AD – Arnobius uses it of books bequeathed.[5][8]
  • 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it of forsaking the Lord.[5][8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To abandon wholly, leave behind, neglect, discard.[2][5]
  2. To desert (a person); (Ecclesiastical Latin) to forsake.[2][5][7]
  3. To abandon (land or buildings), leave derelict; to give up (an action).[2]
  4. To leave behind at death;[2][5][1] (Late Latin) to bequeath.[2][5][1]
  5. (law) To give up a claim to or possession of;[2][6] prō dērelictō habēre, to treat as abandoned.[2][6]

Word family

  • dērelictiō
  • dērelictus

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 n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d 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 f g h i j k l m Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de