devincio

Forms

dēvinciō (present infinitive dēvincīre, perfect active dēvīnxī, supine dēvīnctum); fourth conjugation^[1] Plautus has the short perfect dēvīnxtī;^[2][3] an inscription spells the participle debinti.^[3]

Etymology

It is formed from dē- (“down, fully”) and vinciō (“to bind”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan traces ⟨vinciō⟩ to Proto-Italic *wink- (“to tie, bind”) and Proto-Indo-European *ui-n-k-, cognate with Umbrian preuiślatu (“let him tie”).^[4] The TLL notes that manuscripts sometimes confuse ⟨dēvīnctus⟩ with ⟨dēvictus⟩, from dēvincō (“to conquer”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has “bound by our kindness” in the Asinaria, and men to tie a man up at home in the Menaechmi.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to tie fast or bind, as in Plautus and of Pliny the Elder's lion, and to hold fast in position, as the circles fixed on the axis in Cicero's Aratea.^[2][5] Figuratively it is to bind the mind or feelings, as Cicero's minds bound by the necessity of fate; to bring into subjection, as Cicero's Nuceria held down by garrisons; and to unite, as Cicero's “habit, custom and shared studies have bound us together”.^[2][1] It is also to oblige or lay under an obligation, legal or moral, as in Plautus.^[2][5][1]

Lewis and Short find it used mostly in a figurative sense.^[5] Church Latin glosses it “bind, fetter, obligate”.^[6] Döderlein says that vincīre and nectere are to fetter, so as to stop free movement, while ligāre and viēre are to bind so that things do not fall apart.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of binding by kindness.^[2][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of minds bound by fate and friends united.^[2][8]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of a lion tied up.^[5][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To tie fast, bind; to hold fast.^[2][5][1][6]
2. To bind (the mind, feelings).^[2]
3. To subjugate.^[2][1]
4. To unite, bind together.^[2]
5. To oblige, put under obligation.^[2][5][1][6]

Related words

• vinciō
• vinculum
• ligō
• nectō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de