desolo

Forms

dēsōlō (present infinitive dēsōlāre, perfect active dēsōlāvī, supine dēsōlātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dē- + sōlus (“alone”), with the verbal suffix ⟨-ō⟩.^[2][3][4] The origin of sōlus is unclear: de Vaan rejects the old link with the reflexive pronoun and suggests, tentatively, a connection with the root of salvus (“whole, safe”) and sollus (“whole”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis and Short think it was perhaps first used by Virgil,^[6] in whose Aeneid a speaker says “we have emptied the fields enough”, and who has scattered leaders and companies left on their own seek safety.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is used most often in the past participle,^[6] of persons left alone or forsaken and of places emptied of people;^[2] with an ablative or genitive it means deprived of something, as a column without its commander in Statius.^[2][3] Columella, Statius, Tacitus and Pliny the Younger use it in prose and verse.^[6]

The Vulgate uses it of laying a place waste,^[6] and Stelten gives “bring to desolation” for Church Latin.^[7] Medieval writers also use it of ruining a plan and of grieving or afflicting someone, sometimes as a deponent formed on the model of cōnsōlārī.^[8] English desolate (mid-14th century) comes from its past participle.^[9]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of leaving people alone and of emptying fields.^[2][10]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid speaks of lands left deserted.^[6][10]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses the participle of persons left alone.^[6][10]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it of laying a place waste.^[6][10]
• mid-14th century – English borrows desolate from its past participle.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To leave (someone) all alone, forsake.^[2][6]
2. (past participle, with an ablative or genitive) Deprived of, left without.^[2][3]
3. To empty (a place) of inhabitants, leave deserted; to lay waste.^[2][3]
4. (Medieval Latin) To bring to nothing; to grieve, afflict.^[8]

Word family

• dēsōlātiō
• desolator

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ 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 f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de