Etymologically
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diffugio

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [dɪfˈfʊ.ɡi.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [difˈfuː.d͡ʒi.o][1]

Forms

diffugiō (present infinitive diffugere, perfect active diffūgī, supine diffūgitum); third (-iō variant) conjugation, impersonal in the passive[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dis- + fugiō (“to flee”).[2][1][3] De Vaan traces ⟨fugiō⟩ to Proto-Italic *fug-i- (“to flee”) and Proto-Indo-European *bʰug-i- (“to flee”), cognate with Ancient Greek φεύγω (pheúgō, “to flee”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Cicero on, and very often in Lucretius.[3]

Semantic evolution

It means “to run off in different directions, scatter”, of people and animals: Lucretius has every kind of wild beast fleeing in all directions.[2][5] Of things it is “to disperse, vanish”, as Lucretius' scent of ointment scattering into the air and Horace's “the snows have fled”.[2]

Church Latin glosses it “flee”.[6]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero.[3][7]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius of scattering beasts and scents.[2][5][7]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace of melting snows.[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To flee in different directions, scatter.[2][5][1][6]
  2. Of things, to disperse, vanish.[2][1]

Word family

  • diffugium

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c 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 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de