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digredior

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word digredior

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
2nd century BC, Afranius
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European (*g(h)rd(h)-(e)i-)

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [diːˈɡrɛ.di.ɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [diˈɡrɛː.di.or][1]

Forms

dīgredior (present infinitive dīgredī, perfect active dīgressus sum); third (-iō variant) conjugation, deponent[1] Manuscripts often confuse it with dēgredior;[2] disgredior is transmitted in Boethius.[3]

Etymology

It is formed from dis- (“apart”) and gradior (“to step, walk”).[2][3][1] ⟨gradior⟩ goes back to Proto-Italic *grad-(e)i- and Proto-Indo-European *g(h)rd(h)-(e)i-, cognate with Old Irish do·greinn (“to chase, drive”) and Middle Welsh grynnyaw (“to press, thrust”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first example is Afranius' “we go off home”.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to go off or away, and of two or more people to part or separate, as Cicero's moon that now meets the sun and now moves away from it;[2][5] Suetonius uses it of a woman separated from her husband by divorce.[2][5] In rhetoric it is to digress, as Cicero's complaint about digressing from the case, and to pass from or leave a subject, as Virgil's “passing on from here, I bid you give the goats leafy arbutus”.[2][5][1]

Church Latin glosses it “depart, digress”.[6] Its participle dīgressus gave English digress in the 1520s.[7]

Timeline

  • 2nd century BC – Afranius of going home.[2][8]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of digressing from the case.[2][8]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of passing to another subject.[2][8]
  • c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius of divorce.[2][8]
  • 1520s – English digress is formed from its participle.[7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To go off or away, depart; to part, separate;[2][5][1][6] to part by divorce.[2]
  2. (rhetoric) To digress; to pass from a subject.[2][1][6]

Word family

  • dīgressiō
  • dīgressus
  • dīgressīvus

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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry

“Digredior.” Etymologically, 19 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/digredior. Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.

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