Etymologically
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dimetior

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [diːˈmeː.ti.ɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [diˈmɛt.t͡si.or][1]

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

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