detero

Forms

dēterō (present infinitive dēterere, perfect active dētrīvī, supine dētrītum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dē- + terō (“to rub”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces terō to Proto-Italic *tera- and Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- (“to rub”), comparing Ancient Greek τείρω (teírō, “to oppress, distress, weaken”), Ancient Greek τρίβω (tríbō, “to rub, wear out”), Lithuanian tìrti (“to investigate”) and Old High German drāen (“to turn”).^[4] Porphyrio explained it as “to lessen”, because what is rubbed is diminished.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and the TLL date it from Naevius.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

It is to wear down or away: Lucretius has paved roads worn by the feet of the crowd, Ovid shells worn smooth by the sea, Phaedrus a dog's neck chafed by the chain.^[2] Cato uses it of rubbing off a husk, Columella of pounding herbs with oil and wine and of threshing grain.^[2][5] Figuratively it is to lessen or impair: Horace fears he would diminish Caesar's praises through the fault of his talent.^[2][5] Lewis & Short note that it is mostly poetic and post-Augustan, absent from Cicero and Caesar.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 235–200 BC – Naevius.^[4][3][6]
• 234–149 BC – Cato of rubbing off a husk.^[2][6]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of worn paving stones.^[2][5][6]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of diminishing praise.^[2][5][6]
• 1st century AD – Columella of grinding and threshing.^[2][5][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To wear down or away; to wear smooth; to chafe.^[2][5][1]
2. To rub off, remove.^[2][1]
3. To pound, grind; to thresh (grain).^[2][5]
4. To lessen, impair; to detract from.^[2][5][1]

Word family

• dētrīmentum
• dētrītus
• indetritus

Related words

• terō

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d 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 h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de