Etymologically
Log in

deveho

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the Latin word deveho

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 250–184 BC, Plautus
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European (*weǵʰ-e/o-)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin veho
Latin conveho
Latin reveho
Latin aveho
Latin eveho
Latin vector
English vector
Latin deveho
Latin subveho
Latin vecto
Latin vehiculum
French véhicule
English vehicle

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈdeː.we.(ɦ)oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈdɛː.ve.o][1]

Forms

dēvehō (present infinitive dēvehere, perfect active dēvē̆xī, supine dēvectum); third conjugation[1] Manuscripts sometimes spell it divehō.[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin dē- (“down, away”) + vehō (“to carry”).[3][2][1] De Vaan traces vehō to Proto-Italic *weχ-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *weǵʰ-e/o- (“to carry”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first example is the prologue of Plautus' Poenulus: the man who stole the girls carried them off to Anactorium.[3]

Semantic evolution

It means to carry, convey or transport to a destination, as Caesar has boats carried on wagons twenty-two miles from his camp, and is most frequent in the historians.[3][5] It is used of transport by sea, as Livy's statues and paintings carried from Syracuse to Rome, and in the passive of sailing; of transport downstream, as Cicero's arms brought down the Tiber to a villa.[3] An old inscription allows the stakes of a temple to be carried away, and the Rhetorica ad Herennium uses it of a man sewn in a hide and carried down into a river.[3] Wiktionary adds to descend and to go away.[1]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of girls carried off to a city.[3][6]
  • 86/82 BC – The Rhetorica ad Herennium of a man thrown into a river.[3][6]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar of boats carried on wagons.[5][6]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of works of art shipped from Syracuse to Rome.[3][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To carry, convey, transport to a destination.[3][5][1]
  2. To convey by sea or downstream; in the passive, to sail, travel downstream.[3][1]
  3. To carry away, remove.[3][5]
  4. To carry down; in the passive, to descend.[3][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ 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
  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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry

“Deveho.” Etymologically, 19 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/deveho. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·