devito

Forms

dēvītō (present infinitive dēvītāre, perfect active dēvītāvī, supine dēvītātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dē- + vītō (“to avoid”), and Paulus' Festus explains it as “to avoid thoroughly”.^[2][3][1] For vītō de Vaan prefers a link with invītus (“unwilling”), from Proto-Italic *wīto- (“wanted”) and Proto-Indo-European *uih₁-to- (“wished for”), which requires that a simple ⟨*vītus⟩ was made back from ⟨*dē-vītus⟩ “avoiding”;^[4] Walde and Hofmann had proposed ⟨*vi-itō⟩ “to go out of the way”, which he rejects.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Ennius and Plautus,^[3] who in the Rudens uses it of escaping the waves.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It is to keep clear of things concrete or abstract: Terence has an evil, Lucretius death, Cicero a storm of the times and pain, and Horace a small fortune and a shameful defeat at the polls.^[5][2] The TLL notes contracted perfect forms from Cicero on, and some manuscripts spell it ⟨di-⟩.^[3] Lewis & Short call it rare but classical.^[5] Stelten gives “avoid, shun”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of escaping waves.^[5][3][7]
• 190–159 BC – Terence, of avoiding an evil.^[5][7]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius, of escaping death.^[5][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of avoiding pain.^[5][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To avoid, shun, keep clear of.^[2][5][1][6]

Related words

• vītō
• ēvītō
• invītus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de