direptio

Forms

dīreptiō f (genitive dīreptiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dīripiō (“to tear apart, plunder”) + -tiō.^[2][1] De Vaan lists dīripiō among the compounds of rapiō (“to seize”), which he traces to Proto-Italic *rap-i- (“to seize”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₁r̥p-i- (“to seize”), comparing Ancient Greek ἐρέπτομαι (eréptomai, “to devour, snatch away”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler and the OLD find it first in Cicero, who lists famine, fires, slaughter and pillage among the dangers that threatened.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

It is the plundering of a city or of property, a word Lewis & Short call rare but good prose: Cicero speaks of a city left to plunder and fire, and Caesar, Suetonius and Quintilian use it too.^[5] Livy uses it of a scramble for a share.^[2] Ammianus has it of the stealing of the Golden Fleece.^[5] In the Old Latin Bible and the Vulgate it renders Greek words for plundering.^[6]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of pillage and of a city given over to plunder.^[2][5][4]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of a scramble.^[2][4]
• c. 390 AD – Ammianus of the theft of the Golden Fleece.^[5][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Plundering, pillage, sack.^[2][5][1]
2. A struggle for a share, scramble.^[2]
3. Theft, carrying off.^[5][1]

Related words

• dīripiō
• rapiō

References

1. ^ a b c d 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. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften