desaevio

Forms

dēsaeviō (present infinitive dēsaevīre, perfect active dēsaevīvī or dēsaeviī, supine dēsaevītum); fourth conjugation, no passive^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dē- + saeviō (“to rage”).^[2][3][1] The simple verb comes from saevus (“savage”), which goes back to Proto-Italic *saiwo- and Proto-Indo-European *seh₂i-uo- (“savage”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found in Virgil and Horace,^[3] and Lewis & Short note that it is not used before Augustus.^[5] In the Aeneid the winter storm “rages on the sea” (pelagō dēsaevit hiems).^[5][3]

Semantic evolution

It means to rage violently or to work off one's rage: Virgil uses it of Aeneas raging victorious over the whole plain, Horace of a tragic poet who rants in his art, and Lucan of a witch raging greedily over all the limbs.^[5][3] Columella uses it of young bullocks left to rage for a day and a night, and Suetonius has it in his life of Nero.^[3] Lucan once uses it in the opposite sense, “to cease raging”.^[5]

Christian writers use it of persecution and of the wrath of God: Tertullian has it of the rage against the Christians, and the Vulgate asks “will your anger rage against all?”.^[3][5] Medieval Latin applied it to people, the devil and the forces of nature.^[6]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a storm and of Aeneas in battle.^[3][5][7]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of a ranting tragic poet.^[5][7]
• 39–65 AD – Lucan uses it both for raging and for ceasing to rage.^[5][7]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it of rage against the Christians.^[3][7]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it of the wrath of God.^[5][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To rage violently; to work off or vent one's anger.^[2][5]
2. To cease raging.^[5]

Usage notes

The expanded commentary of Servius explains the verb in Virgil as “rages greatly”, but notes that elsewhere it means “stops raging”.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de