Etymologically
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deripio

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [deːˈrɪ.pi.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [deˈriː.pi.o][1]

Forms

dēripiō (present infinitive dēripere, perfect active dēripuī, supine dēreptum); third (-iō variant) conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dē- (“down, away”) + rapiō (“to seize”), with the vowel weakened in the compound.[2][3][1] De Vaan traces rapiō to Proto-Italic *rap-i- (“to seize”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₁rp- (“to seize”), the zero grade of a root *h₁rep-;[4] Schrijver posits a separate root for it.[4] Cognate with Ancient Greek ἐρέπτομαι (eréptomai, “to devour, snatch away”), Albanian rjep (“to tear off, rob”) and Lithuanian aprė́pti (“to take, catch”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,[4] who in the Menaechmi has a slave cry out at the outrage of his master being snatched away in the street.[2]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is to tear or pull something off what it adheres to, as Virgil's vine-dresser pulls the boots off his legs to tread the grapes, and so to remove peremptorily, as Cicero speaks of rashness of false opinion being torn away.[2] It also means to seize and carry off, and to pull down bodily: Lucretius has lionesses dragging men down from behind.[2] Lewis & Short note that it is frequent in the poets.[5]

In manuscripts it is often confused with dīripiō, and a late treatise on differences of words distinguished them: deripere is to drag from above downwards, diripere to tear apart in different directions.[3] Church Latin glosses it to tear or snatch away.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a man snatched away in the street.[2][4][7]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius of lionesses pulling men down.[2][7]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of false opinions torn away.[2][7]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of boots pulled off the legs.[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To tear or pull off something adhering to a body or object.[2][5][1]
  2. To remove peremptorily.[2]
  3. To seize and take away, snatch away, grab.[2][5]
  4. To pull down bodily, tear down.[2][5][1]

Usage notes

Isidore's Differentiae explain the difference between deripio and dīripiō: the first takes something from a higher place to a lower, the second tears it to pieces.[3]

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 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. ^ a b c d e 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de