destituo

Forms

dēstituō (present infinitive dēstituere, perfect active dēstituī, supine dēstitūtum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin dē- + statuō (“to set up, place”).^[2][3][1] The verb ⟨statuō⟩ belongs to stō (“to stand”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand”).^[1][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus, Rudens: duo dēstituit signa hīc, “he has set up two statues here”.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is to set up or place, and to stand people where they can be seen, as Caecilius' man who placed all his slaves at table in front of him, Lewis and Short find this sense in early Latin and often in Livy.^[2][3] From setting down and going away it is to leave someone isolated, as Cicero's man who, suddenly left alone, took fright, and of the sea leaving fish stranded on the shore in Virgil.^[2] Most often it is to abandon or desert: Cicero complains he has been abandoned by everyone.^[2] It is also to let someone down, to give up an activity, to disappoint expectations (Livy), and with an ablative to leave without: Laomedon cheated the gods of their agreed pay (Horace).^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “abandon, leave alone”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of setting up statues.^[2][5]
• 230/220–168 BC – Caecilius of placing slaves in view.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero in the sense “abandon”.^[2][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of disappointed expectations.^[2][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To set up, place; to set (persons) in view.^[2][1]
2. To leave alone, forsake, abandon, desert.^[2][1][6]
3. To let down, leave in the lurch; to disappoint (expectations).^[2][1]
4. To give up (an activity).^[2]
5. (with ablative) To leave without, deprive of; to cheat.^[2][1]

Word family

• dēstitūtiō
• destitūtor

Related words

• statuō
• stō
• cōnstituō
• īnstituō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson