destillo

Forms

dēstīllō (present infinitive dēstīllāre, perfect active dēstīllāvī, supine dēstīllātum); first conjugation^[1] The spelling ⟨dist-⟩ is frequent in the manuscripts.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin dē- + stīllō (“to drip”).^[2][3][4] The TLL quotes Servius, who derives it from stīlla (“drop”), and de Vaan lists ⟨dēstīllāre⟩ among the derivatives of that noun.^[3][5] De Vaan regards the noun as a possible diminutive of stīria (“icicle”); its further origin is unclear, and Ancient Greek στίλη (stílē, “drop”) cannot be compared with it directly.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL and de Vaan record it from Varro on.^[3][5] Varro has sudandum assum destillat calore, of roast meat that drips as the heat makes it sweat.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

It is to drip or trickle down, of liquids and of molten things:^[2][6] Virgil has a viscous fluid dripping from the groin, and Celsus uses it of mucus running from the head into the nose and of urine passing drop by drop.^[2][3] Seneca jokes that, ill with catarrh, he had himself dripped away to utter thinness, and writes that Scaevola stood watching his right hand drip into the enemy's fire.^[2][3] Things can also drip with moisture, as Tibullus' temples with nard, and things that are not liquid can fall bit by bit: Seneca reports Anaxagoras' view that fire distils from the aether, and Pliny the Elder writes of a scent distilling from trees.^[2][6]

It is also transitive, to sprinkle or moisten: Fronto has crumbs moistened with wine,^[2][7] and Caelius Aurelianus and Apicius have oil dripped onto something.^[8] The Old Latin Bible uses it for “to distil”.^[7] English distill comes through Old French from the spelling ⟨distillāre⟩.^[9]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of roast meat dripping with heat.^[3][10]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a fluid dripping down.^[2][10]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of catarrh.^[2][10]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of fire distilling from the aether.^[2][10]
• 100–170 AD – Fronto uses it transitively, of moistening with wine.^[2][10]
• late 14th century – English borrows distill through Old French.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To drip or trickle down.^[2][6]
2. (intransitive) To drip with moisture.^[2][8]
3. (intransitive) Of things not liquid, to fall bit by bit, distil.^[2]
4. (transitive) To sprinkle, moisten; to drip (a liquid) on.^[2][8]
5. (transitive, Late Latin) To distil.^[7]

Word family

• dēstīllātiō
• superdestillo

Related words

• stīllō
• English distill

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de