diribeo

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [dɪˈrɪ.be.oː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [diˈriː.be.o]^[1]

Forms

diribeō (present infinitive diribēre, perfect active diribuī, supine diribitum); second conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from earlier ⟨*dishibeō⟩ by rhotacism, from Latin dis- + habeō (“to have, hold”), like dirimō from ⟨dis-⟩ and ⟨emō⟩.^[1][2][3][4] De Vaan traces ⟨habeō⟩ to Proto-Italic *xab-ē- (“has taken, has”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰh₁b- (“to take”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Gaffiot cites Cicero's letters to his brother, of sorting voting tablets, and Varro's Rēs rūsticae.^[6] Köbler dates Cicero 81–43 BC.^[7]

Semantic evolution

It meant to distribute, dispense, and specifically, as a term of public law, to sort the voting tablets taken out of the ballot box for counting.^[2][4] Pliny the Elder uses it more generally, of distributing nations and kingdoms.^[4]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of votes.^[6][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of voting tablets.^[6][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To distribute, dispense.^[2]
2. (public law) To sort the votes for counting.^[2][4]

Word family

• diribitiō
• diribitor
• diribitōrium

Related words

• abhibeō
• adhibeō
• antehabeō
• cohibeō
• exhibeō
• habeō
• inhibeō
• perhibeō
• posthabeō
• praehibeō
• dirimō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de