desum

Forms

dēsum (present infinitive deesse, perfect active dēfuī, future active participle dēfutūrus); irregular conjugation, suppletive, no passive, no supine stem except in the future active participle, no gerund^[1] Plautus has the old subjunctive dēfuat and Cato dēsiet.^[2] In verse dee- is usually pronounced as one syllable.^[2][3] The Tironian notes have difuit, and a late text separates it as dē nōn sunt.^[4]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin dē- + sum (“to be”).^[2][4][1] De Vaan traces sum to Proto-Indo-European *h₁es- (“to be”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has a curse: utinam vadēs dēsint, in carcere ut sīs, “I wish you may lack sureties, so that you end up in prison”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Dēesse is “to be wanting, lacking, not forthcoming” (of supplies, words, opportunities), and with the dative of a person “to fail, neglect one's duty to, leave unsupported”.^[2][3][1] Döderlein contrasts it with abesse: abesse is absence from a place, dēesse an absence that leaves something incomplete.^[6]

Church Latin glosses it “to fail, be wanting, be absent”.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: utinam vadēs dēsint.^[2][8]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of straw running short on the farm.^[2][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero: nūllō locō dēfuī, “I never failed him”.^[2][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To be lacking, be wanting, be missing.^[2][3][1][7]
2. (with dative) To fail, neglect, desert.^[2][3][1]
3. To fall short of, fail to obtain.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de