desertor

Forms

dēsertor m (genitive dēsertōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dēserō (“to abandon”) + -tor.^[2][1] De Vaan lists dēserō among the compounds of serō (“to join, string together”), which he traces to Proto-Italic *sere/o- and Proto-Indo-European *ser-e/o- (“to thread, tie together”), comparing Ancient Greek εἴρω (eírō, “to knit together”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it first in Cicero, who uses it three times;^[4][5] in a letter to Atticus he contrasts a man thought to save his enemies with one who deserts his friends.^[6]

Semantic evolution

It is anyone who abandons a person, a duty or a cause, as Cicero's deserter of the common good.^[2][6] Most often it is a military term, a soldier who leaves his post, used once by Caesar and often by Livy, Tacitus and the jurists; the Digest distinguishes him from the transfuga, who goes over to the enemy.^[6][4] Servius and Isidore define the word, Isidore explaining that deserters are so called because they wander off after abandoning their military duties.^[4] Poets use it more freely: Ovid of a deserter of Love, Virgil of a deserter of Asia.^[6] Tertullian calls idolaters deserters of God, and Church Latin glosses it deserter or rebel.^[4][7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a deserter of friends.^[6][5]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of a military deserter.^[6][5]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian of deserters of God.^[4][5]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville explains the word.^[4][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. One who abandons or forsakes a person, duty or cause.^[2][6][1]
2. (military) A deserter, a soldier who leaves his post.^[2][6][7]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A rebel.^[7]

Word family

• condesertor

Related words

• dēserō
• transfuga

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson