directus

Forms

dīrēctus (feminine dīrēcta, neuter dīrēctum, comparative dīrēctior); first/second-declension adjective^[1] It is also spelled dērēctus.^[1]

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the perfect participle from Latin dīrigō (“to set straight, direct”).^[1][2][3] That verb is dis- with regō (“to direct”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *reg-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“to stretch, direct”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from the Twelve Tables.^[3] Varro speaks of straight rather than projecting teeth.^[1]

Semantic evolution

It is not oblique or curved, straight, as Cicero's olive trees in a straight row; moving straight ahead; and in dīrēctum, in a straight line, as in Livy.^[1] It is vertical or upright, standing at right angles, as Caesar's upright beams, and sheer, as Cicero's Henna, cut off on every side.^[1] Figuratively it is straightforward, direct, undisguised, and of a person forthright.^[1] In law it is direct, not depending on an intervening procedure: Julian, Ulpian and Gaius speak of direct grants of freedom and of the dīrēcta āctiō, founded on the strict terms of the law.^[1] In Medieval Latin it is direct, immediate; right, righteous; and rightful, and the neuter dīrēctum is a right.^[5] Church Latin glosses it direct, guiding, straight, proper.^[6] Wiktionary reconstructs a Proto-Romance *dērēctus “straight” from the variant.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 450 BC – The Twelve Tables.^[3]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of straight teeth.^[1]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a straight row and of sheer cliffs.^[1]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of upright beams.^[1][3]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, in a straight line.^[1]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Straight, not oblique; moving straight ahead;^[1][7][6] in dīrēctum: in a straight line.^[1]
2. Vertical, upright; sheer.^[1]
3. Straightforward, direct, undisguised; forthright.^[1][6]
4. (law) Direct, absolute;^[1] dīrēcta āctiō: an action on the strict terms of the law.^[1]
5. (Medieval Latin) Immediate; right, righteous, rightful.^[5]

Related words

• dīrigō
• regō
• rēctus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
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 Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org