detondeo

Forms

dētondeō (present infinitive dētondēre, perfect active dētondī, supine dētōnsum); second conjugation^[1] An old perfect dētotondī is quoted from Varro, beside dētondī in Ennius.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin dē- + tondeō (“to shear”).^[3][4][5] De Vaan derives the simple verb from Proto-Italic *tond-eje- and Proto-Indo-European *tond-eie- (“to shear”), and compares Ancient Greek τένδω (téndō, “to gnaw at”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan records it from Plautus,^[5] whose Bacchides has, in jest, altera iam bis detonsa certo est, “the other has certainly been shorn twice already”.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Cato tells farmers to anoint sheep all over when they have shorn them,^[6][7] and Ennius uses it figuratively of stripping rich fields.^[6][8] It is to cut hair short or crop a person: Ovid writes of shorn hair, and Persius of close-cropped youth.^[6][7] Columella uses it of pruning shrubs,^[6][9] and Ovid of leaves stripped by the cold returning to the trees.^[6][8] Nemesianus uses it of cows cropping grass.^[9][8] In Medieval Latin it is used of clerical tonsure and of shaving the head as a punishment, and also means to mow.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus jokes about something shorn twice.^[6][5][11]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of shearing sheep.^[6][11]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it of stripping fields.^[6][11]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of pruning.^[6][11]
• 2nd half of the 3rd century AD – Nemesianus uses it of cows grazing.^[9][11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To shear, clip (an animal); to crop the hair of (a person).^[6][2]
2. To prune (a tree).^[6]
3. To cut off (hair, wool); to strip off (leaves).^[6][9]
4. (of cattle) To crop (grass).^[9][8]
5. (Medieval Latin) To give the clerical tonsure to; to shave as a punishment.^[10]

Word family

• detonsio
• dētonsō

Related words

• tondeō
• attondeō
• tōnsor
• tōnsūra

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
10. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
11. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de