discerpo

Forms

discerpō (present infinitive discerpere, perfect active discerpsī, supine discerptum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dis- + carpō (“to pluck”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces carpō to Proto-Italic *karp- and Proto-Indo-European *kerp-e/o- (“to pick, pluck”).^[4] Cognate with Ancient Greek καρπός (karpós, “fruit”), Lithuanian kir̃pti (“to chop, cut”) and Old English hærfest (“autumn”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Ennius,^[4] who writes that no one could tear the body apart with iron, nec pote quisquam corpus discerpere ferro.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means to tear or rend to pieces, to mangle: Cicero argues that the soul cannot be divided or torn apart, and Virgil has a young man torn to pieces in the rites of Bacchus and scattered over the fields.^[5][2] Livy also uses it.^[5] Figuratively it is to tear a person to shreds with words, as in Catullus' “even if the stars tear me apart with hostile words”.^[2] In the land surveyor Hyginus it means to cut or divide off, of pieces of land that run out from the straight lines.^[2] Glossaries explain it as to mangle or tear apart, and also to devour.^[3] In Church Latin it is to rend, to tear.^[6]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius, of tearing a body apart.^[2][4][7]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus, of tearing with words.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of the soul that cannot be torn apart.^[5][7]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil, of a young man torn apart in Bacchic rites.^[5][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To tear or rend to pieces, to mangle, mutilate.^[2][5][1][6]
2. (figurative) To pull a person to pieces with words.^[2]
3. To cut or divide off.^[2]

Word family

• discerptio

Related words

• carpō
• dēcerpō
• excerpō

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 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 e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de