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desuper

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word desuper

Confidence
Established
Formation
Compound
First attested
c. 50 BC, Caesar
Ultimate origin
Latin (dē,super)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin de
French de
French debout
French devant
French davantage
Latin desuper
Latin denuo

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈdeː.sʊ.pɛr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈdɛː.s̬u.per][1]

Forms

dēsuper (not comparable)[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dē (“from”) + super (“above”).[2][1][3] De Vaan traces super to Proto-Italic *super(i) (“above”) and Proto-Indo-European *(h₁)uper(i) (“over, above”), comparing Umbrian super (“on top”) and Ancient Greek ὑπέρ (hupér, “over”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler and Lewis & Short first cite Caesar,[3][5] who has soldiers leaping onto the phalanxes and wounding the enemy from above.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It means from above, from overhead;[5] Lewis & Short note that it is frequent in the historians and poets but not in Cicero.[5] Virgil has a dark grove that hangs over from above, and Suetonius has a boar attacked with javelins from above.[5] Without the idea of motion it is simply above, in the poets and later writers, as in Ovid and the Vulgate.[5][2] With the accusative it is a preposition, over, above, as in Grattius of a horse coming over the Ligurian Alps.[2] Church Latin glosses it from above.[6] In medieval Latin it can mean there, moreover, on top of, and on the higher side of.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 50 BC – Caesar of wounding from above.[2][5][3]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of a grove hanging over.[5][3]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of togas spread above.[5][3]
  • c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius of a boar attacked from above.[5][3]
  • 390–406 AD – The Vulgate.[5][3]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. From above, from overhead.[2][5][1][6]
  2. Above, up above.[2][5]
  3. (Medieval Latin) There; moreover.[7]

Preposition

  1. (with accusative) Over, above.[2][7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  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 f g h i j k l m Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
Cite this entry

“Desuper.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/desuper. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

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