digressus

Forms

dīgressus m (genitive dīgressūs); fourth declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dīgredior (“to go apart, depart”) + -tus.^[2][1][3] dīgredior is a compound of dis- (“apart”) and gradior (“to step, walk”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *grad-(e)i- and Proto-Indo-European *g(h)rd(h)-(e)i-.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it first in Cicero.^[3][5] He writes to his brother that he dreaded the tears of their meeting but could not have borne their parting.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short call it a word of good prose.^[6] It is the departure of a person or a parting: Cicero speaks of his departure, absence and return, and sets it against accessus, “approach”, and beside discessus.^[2][6] In rhetoric Quintilian uses it for a digression, something set out in digressu, and in the plural.^[2][6] Köbler records it in Bede.^[5]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of a parting and of his departure.^[2][6][3][5]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian, of a digression.^[2][6][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A going away, departure; a parting, separation.^[2][6][1]
2. (rhetoric) A digression.^[2][6]

Related words

• dīgredior
• dīgressiō
• gradior
• discessus

References

1. ^ a b c 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 d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press