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desipio

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word desipio

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 250–184 BC, Plautus
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European (*sh₁p-i-)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin sapio
Latin sapidus
Latin insipidus
French insipide
English insipid
Latin desipio

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [deːˈsɪ.pi.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [deˈs̬iː.pi.o][1]

Forms

dēsipiō (present infinitive dēsipere, perfect active dēsipuī); third (-iō variant) conjugation, no passive, no supine stem[1] The grammarian Charisius prescribes dēsipere, not dēsipīre.[2] The perfect dēsipuī is found in Lactantius.[3]

Etymology

It is from Latin dē- + sapiō (“to be wise”).[4][1][2] De Vaan traces sapiō to Proto-Italic *sap-i- and Proto-Indo-European *sh₁p-i- (“to notice”).[5] Cognate with Oscan sipus (“knowing”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it with a genitive, desipiebam mentis, “I was out of my mind”.[3]

Semantic evolution

It means to be out of one's mind, to lose one's reason,[4] and more generally to be silly or act foolishly:[3] Cicero speaks of saying that the greatest men are foolish, raving and mad.[3] Lucretius uses it of lacking rational intelligence: men would be without reason, and wild beasts would have it.[4] Horace's dulce est dēsipere in locō, “it is sweet to be foolish at the right time”, means to indulge in trifling.[3] Celsus uses it of a fever patient who is delirious.[3] Tertullian uses it once actively, to make insipid.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, desipiebam mentis.[3][6]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius, of lacking reason.[4][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, of acting foolishly.[3][6]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace, dulce est dēsipere in locō.[3][6]
  • 14–37 AD – Celsus, of delirium in fever.[3][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To be out of one's mind, to lose one's reason;[4] to be delirious, to rave.[3][1]
  2. To be silly, act foolishly, fool around.[3][1]
  3. To lack rational intelligence.[4]
  4. (Late Latin, transitive) To make insipid.[3]

Word family

  • dēsipientia

References

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

“Desipio.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/desipio. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·