Etymologically
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discingo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [dɪsˈkɪŋ.ɡoː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [diʃˈʃiŋ.ɡo][1]

Forms

discingō (present infinitive discingere, perfect active discinxī, supine discinctum); third conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dis- + cingō (“to gird”).[2][1][3] De Vaan finds the origin of cingō uncertain; of the cognates proposed, Lithuanian kinkýti (“to bridle horses”) fits in meaning but has a root shape that cannot be Indo-European.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL reads it perhaps from Plautus, then from Cicero on;[3] Cicero writes to his brother that Caesar is in his bosom and that he is not ungirding himself, that is, not neglecting him.[5]

Semantic evolution

It means to remove the belt or girdle, and in military use also to disarm:[2] Horace says one must run away with one's tunic ungirt,[5] Suetonius describes people in tunics and ungirt, and Silius Italicus has someone ungirded of his arms.[5] As a military punishment soldiers were stripped of their belts: Livy has a commander leave them standing ungirt with drawn swords, and Suetonius says Augustus did the same.[5] Juvenal uses it of Marius disarming, that is conquering, the Africans,[5] and Martial of the Amazon's belt.[5] Silius also has it of uncovering deceits, and Sidonius of settling a dispute.[5] The participle discinctus is ungirt, as in the Vulgate of the man who has put off his armour, and figuratively loose: Virgil's ungirt Africans, and Horace's spendthrift opposed to the miser Chremes.[5] Manuscripts sometimes confuse it with distinguō.[3]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of not neglecting a friendship.[5][3]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace of an ungirt tunic.[5]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of soldiers ungirt as a punishment.[5]
  • c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal of disarming the Africans.[5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To remove the belt or girdle from, ungird;[2][5][1] (military) to deprive of the sword-belt, disarm.[2][5][1]
  2. (figurative) discingī, to relax one's efforts;[5] (of deceits) to uncover;[5] (Late Latin) to settle (a dispute).[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  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 c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press