Etymologically
Log in

destringo

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 19 October 2026 at 19:09. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [deːsˈtrɪŋ.ɡoː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [desˈtriŋ.ɡo][1]

Forms

dēstringō (present infinitive dēstringere, perfect active dēstrīnxī, supine dēstrictum); third conjugation[1] Manuscripts often confuse it with distringō.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin dē- (“off, down”) + stringō (“to strip, draw tight”).[2][3][1] De Vaan traces stringō in the sense to strip off to Proto-Italic *string- (“to strip off”) and Proto-Indo-European *stri-n-g- (“to brush, strip”).[4] Cognate with Old High German strīhhan (“to brush”) and Old English strīcan (“to brush, rub”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates stringō from Cato,[4] and Lewis & Short's first example of this compound is Cato's On Agriculture, of stripping oats.[5]

Semantic evolution

It means to strip off leaves, fruit or ears, as Columella's olives and myrtle berries and Manilius' grain stripped from the brittle stalk, and to strip off clothes, as Phaedrus' tunic pulled from the shoulders.[2][5] In the baths it is to rub down with a strigil, as Pliny the Younger describes someone being scraped and dried, and Pliny the Elder uses it of scouring the bowels.[2][5] Ovid uses it of grazing, as a reed that grazed the surface of the body, and of birds skimming the water, and figuratively of wounding by criticism.[2] Above all it is to draw or unsheathe a weapon, as Cicero's drawn sword.[2]

Timeline

  • 234–149 BC – Cato of stripping oats.[5][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of a drawn sword.[2][6]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of grazing and skimming.[2][6]
  • c. 15 BC–c. 50 AD – Phaedrus of a tunic stripped off.[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To strip off; to strip the clothes from.[2][5][1]
  2. To rub down with a strigil; to scour the bowels.[2][5][1]
  3. To graze, touch lightly; to wound by criticism.[2]
  4. To draw, unsheathe a weapon.[2][5][1]

Word family

  • destrictārium
  • indestrictus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de