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dignor

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Forms

dignor (present infinitive dignārī, perfect active dignātus sum); first conjugation, deponent[1] An active dignō, dignāre is also used, mostly in the passive.[2]

Etymology

It is formed from dignus (“worthy”).[2][3][1] De Vaan lists dignus and this verb among the derivatives of decet (“it is fitting”), tracing dignus to Proto-Italic *dek-no- (“worthy”) and Proto-Indo-European *deḱ-no-; he compares Umbrian tiçit (“ought to”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pacuvius has it first: “since my equals did not deign to look at me”.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

It is to consider someone worthy of something, usually with the ablative: Accius asks whether he should be thought worthy of the house of Pelops, and in Virgil a speaker says she does not think herself worthy of such honour.[2][3] With an infinitive it is to deign or think fit, and with a negative to disdain: Lucretius complains that no one deigns to look up at the bright temples of the sky, and in Virgil Dido deigns to join herself to a man.[2][3] Lewis & Short call it mostly poetic and post-Augustan.[3] The Vulgate has si dignēris audīre, “if you deign to listen”, and Church Latin glosses it to grant or vouchsafe.[3][5]

Timeline

  • 220–130 BC – Pacuvius of not deigning to look at someone.[2][6]
  • 170–c. 90 BC – Accius of being thought worthy.[2][6]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius of not deigning to look at the sky.[2][6]
  • 390–406 AD – the Vulgate of deigning to listen.[3][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To consider worthy, deem deserving of.[2][3][1]
  2. To deign, think fit; with a negative, to disdain.[2][3][1]
  3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To grant, vouchsafe.[5]

Word family

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de