diffusus

Forms

diffūsus (feminine diffūsa, neuter diffūsum, adverb diffūsē); first/second-declension participle^[1] The comparative is diffūsior.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin diffundō (“to pour out, spread”), its participle used as an adjective.^[2][1][4] That verb is made of dis- and fundō¹ (“to pour”),^[1][5] which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *χund- and Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰu-n-d- (“to pour”);^[6] cognate with Ancient Greek χέω (khéō, “to pour”) and Sanskrit जुहोति (juhóti, “pours, sacrifices”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Rhetorica ad Herennium speaks of so large and wide-ranging a body of writing.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is spread out over a wide area: Cicero has a plane tree spreading its branches,^[3] Manilius stars gliding across the wide sky, Seneca a broad road and Pliny the Elder a wide-bodied sow fattened on acorns.^[2][3] Of writings and subjects it is wide-ranging: Cicero speaks of civil law, then diffuse and scattered, to be brought into fixed classes,^[3] and Suetonius of the vast mass of laws.^[2] Of speech it is diffuse or drawn out, as Cicero sets the drawn-out kind of voice against the clipped one.^[2][3] Church Latin has “wide, extensive, spread out”.^[7] English diffuse came from it, as a verb in the 1520s.^[5]

Timeline

• 86/82 BC – The Rhetorica ad Herennium, of a wide body of writing.^[2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of a spreading plane tree and of diffuse speech.^[3][2][4]
• 1st century AD – Manilius, of the wide sky.^[2][4]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius, of the mass of laws.^[2][4]
• 1520s – English diffuse.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Spread over a wide area, spreading, broad.^[2][3][1]
2. Of writings or subjects, covering a wide field, extensive.^[2][3]
3. Of speech or writing, diffuse, drawn out.^[2][3]

Related words

• diffundō
• fundō¹
• diffūsiō
• English diffuse

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 e f g h i Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson