despecto

Forms

dēspectō (present infinitive dēspectāre); first conjugation, no perfect or supine stems^[1]

Etymology

It is a frequentative verb, from Latin dēspiciō (“to look down on”), formed like spectō (“to watch”).^[2][3][4] De Vaan lists dēspiciō among the compounds of speciō (“to look”), which goes back to Proto-Italic *spekje/o- and Proto-Indo-European *speḱ-ie/o- (“to look”).^[5] He compares Sanskrit पश्यति (páśyati, “to look at”) and Ancient Greek σκέπτομαι (sképtomai, “to look around, look at”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it first in Sallust, Virgil and Ovid;^[2] Sallust uses it of a mountain overlooking the fields of Lycia.^[6][3]

Semantic evolution

It means to look down on something from a height: in Virgil a seated shepherd looks down on the flames, and in Ovid Perseus looks down on the lands from high in the air.^[6][7] Of hills, walls and buildings it means to rise above or overlook, as of the walls of Abella in Virgil.^[6][8] Tacitus uses it figuratively, to look down on or despise people.^[6][9] Lewis and Short think it perhaps not used before Augustus.^[8] Medieval poets and chroniclers kept the sense of looking down on and watching.^[10] The TLL lists Italian dispettare, Old French despitier and Spanish despectar as its descendants.^[2]

Timeline

• 86–34 BC – Sallust uses it of a mountain overlooking fields.^[6][11]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of looking down on flames and of walls overlooking peoples.^[6][11]
• 43 BC–AD 18 – Ovid uses it of looking down on the lands.^[6][11]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it in the sense to despise.^[6][11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To look down at from a height, survey.^[6][8]
2. (of hills, buildings) To rise above, overlook.^[6][8]
3. To look down on, despise.^[6][9]

Word family

• despectātiō
• despectator

Related words

• dēspectiō
• dispectō

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
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 f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
10. ^ Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
11. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de