dimetior

Forms

dīmētior (present infinitive dīmētīrī, perfect active dīmēnsus sum); fourth conjugation, deponent^[1] The form dēmētior is frequent in manuscripts and texts, and apparently more common in the sense “to measure out by weight”.^[2] The perfect participle dīmēnsus is often passive, “measured”.^[2] Late texts have a participle dīmētītus and a future dīmētībor.^[3]

Etymology

It is from Latin dis- + mētior (“to measure”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces mētior to Proto-Italic *mēti- and Proto-Indo-European *meh₁-ti- (“measurement”).^[4] Cognate with Ancient Greek μῆτις (mêtis, “wisdom, skill”) and Old English mǣd (“measure”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[4] in whom someone asks for rationed food, petere dimensum cibum.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its main sense is to measure out a space, physically or in the mind:^[2] Cicero speaks of the zeal for measuring the sky and the earth, Virgil of measuring out a field for a contest, and Quintilian of measuring the world.^[2][5] Cicero also uses it of counting and measuring syllables to form metrical patterns, and of periods of time, the revolutions of months and years measured out.^[2] It also means to weigh out or measure by weight, as in Plautus' rations.^[2] Döderlein notes that dīmētior and dīmētor mean especially the measuring and marking out of subdivisions.^[6] In Church Latin it is to mete out or measure.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of rationed food.^[2][4][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of measuring the sky and syllables.^[2][8]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil, of measuring out a field.^[5][8]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian, of measuring the world.^[5][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To measure out a space;^[2][5][1] to measure words or syllables in metre;^[2] to measure periods of time.^[2]
2. To weigh out, measure by weight, mete out.^[2][7]

Word family

• demensio
• dīmēnsiō
• indimensus

Related words

• mētior
• mēnsūra

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. ^ a b c d 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. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de