Etymologically
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devius

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈdeː.wi.ʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈdɛː.vi.us][1]

Forms

dēvius (feminine dēvia, neuter dēvium); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dē- + via (“road”) + -us.[2][1][3] De Vaan traces via to Proto-Italic *wijā- (“road”) and Proto-Indo-European *wih₁-eh₂- (“pursuit”), comparing Oscan víú (“road”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero, who asks a man whether he fled to the out-of-the-way town of Beroea.[5][2]

Semantic evolution

It is out of the way, remote, and of people secluded: Cicero says the people of Anagnia lived off the main road.[2] Livy uses the neuter plural for remote places, and once has a door that was most out of the way.[2][3] It is also wandering off the road: Horace has the she-goats, "wives of a smelly husband", straying in search of thyme.[2] Of a person or conduct it is erratic, inconstant: Cicero calls a man headlong and erratic in all his plans.[2] Church Latin glosses it devious, wandering from the way.[6]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of a remote town and of an erratic man.[2][5]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace of straying goats.[2][5]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of remote places.[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Out of the way, remote; living in seclusion;[2][7][1] dēvia, remote places.[2][7][1]
  2. Wandering off the road, straying.[2][6]
  3. Of persons or conduct, erratic, inconstant; erroneous, devious.[2][6][1]

References

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