differtus

Forms

differtus (feminine differta, neuter differtum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dis- + farciō (“to cram, stuff”),^[2][3] formed as if it were the perfect passive participle of a verb ⟨*differciō⟩, like cōnfertus beside cōnferciō.^[1] The TLL derives it in the same way from the participle of that verb,^[4] and Lewis and Short explain it as “stretched out by stuffing”.^[5]

De Vaan traces the verb to Proto-Italic *fark-je- (“to stuff”) and finds its further origin unclear: the only possible cognate is Ancient Greek φράσσω (phrássō, “to fence in”), which fits the meaning poorly, and the word may not be Indo-European.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Catullus,^[7] who calls a young man leporum differtus … ac facētiārum, “stuffed full of charm and wit”.^[4][8]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short call it rare but classical, and note that Cicero does not use it.^[5] It usually takes an ablative: Caesar describes a province crammed with prefects and tax collectors,^[4][5] Horace the Forum of Appius packed with boatmen and stingy innkeepers,^[4][5] and Tacitus the body of Poppaea filled with spices.^[4][5] Horace also uses differtum forum alone for a crowded forum.^[5][9]

Cremutius Cordus, quoted by the elder Seneca, says that Antony was not only sated with killing citizens but stuffed with it,^[4][9] and the younger Seneca applies it to the fat bodies of fish.^[4]

Timeline

• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it with the genitive.^[4][7]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar describes a province crammed with officials.^[4][7]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of the crowded Forum of Appius.^[4][7]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of a body stuffed with spices.^[4][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Stuffed full, crammed, crowded (with something, ablative or genitive).^[2][5][9]
2. Crowded (without a complement): differtum forum, a thronged forum.^[5][10]
3. (figurative) Glutted, sated to excess.^[2][9]

Related words

• farciō
• cōnfertus
• refertus

References

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