destitutus

Forms

dēstitūtus (feminine dēstitūta, neuter dēstitūtum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the past participle from Latin dēstituō (“to set down; to abandon”).^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler first records it in Livy,^[4] who speaks of an old age left “destitute”, that is, without children.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The adjective keeps the senses of the verb: left alone or forsaken, without help, and lacking or devoid of something, with the ablative or with ab.^[2][5][3] The OLD singles out the sense “childless”.^[2] Seneca uses it of a bald head,^[5] Augustine of the helpless and needy,^[5] and it could also mean disappointed in a hope.^[1][6] In medieval Latin it meant abandoned, forsaken.^[7]

Timeline

• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of an old age without children.^[5][4]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca describes a head as bare of hair.^[5][4]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it of the helpless and needy.^[5][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Abandoned, forsaken, left alone.^[5][1][3]
2. Destitute or devoid (of), lacking.^[2][3]
3. Childless.^[2][5]
4. Without help, needy.^[5]
5. Disappointed (in a hope).^[1][6]

Related words

• English destitute

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b Jeanneau, Gérard; Woitrain, Jean-Paul; Hassid, Jean-Claude (2017), Dictionnaire latin-français, online ed., prima-elementa.fr
7. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill