detestor

Forms

dētestor (present infinitive dētestārī, perfect active dētestātus sum); first conjugation, deponent^[1] The perfect participle dētestātus is often passive in sense, “cursed”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin dē- + testor (“to call to witness”).^[2][3][1] testor is made from testis (“witness”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *tri-sto- and Proto-Indo-European *trito-sth₂-o- (“third standing by”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan cites a form dētestātum, glossed “announced by solemn testimony”, from the Twelve Tables.^[4] In literature the OLD's earliest examples are in Caesar and Cicero.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the language of religion it is to curse someone while calling the gods to witness: Caesar has a man calling down every curse on Ambiorix, and Livy calls down threats and dangers on the heads of others.^[2][5] From cursing came the sense of abhorring or loathing, as in Cicero's “I do not know the cause, I abhor the outcome”.^[2][1] Cicero also prays the gods to avert and ward off an omen.^[2] In law it meant to give notice to someone absent, and Servius Sulpicius wrote a book on renouncing family rites, apparently those of a man about to be adopted.^[2]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of abhorring an outcome and of averting an omen.^[2][6]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of calling down curses on an enemy.^[2][6]
• 1530s – English detest is borrowed through French.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To call down a solemn curse on, execrate; to call down a curse or threat.^[2][5][1]
2. To express or feel abhorrence for, detest, loathe.^[2][8][1]
3. To avert or ward off by entreaty.^[2][1]
4. (law) To give formal notice to someone absent; to renounce family rites.^[2]

Word family

• dētestābilis
• dētestātiō
• detestator

Usage notes

Döderlein sets it beside abominor, to recoil from something as an evil omen, and exsecror, to curse a guilty person out of human society: dētestor is to ward off an evil by appealing to the gods against a dreaded person or thing.^[9]

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 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 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper