discribo

Forms

discrībō (present infinitive discrībere, perfect active discrīpsī, supine discrīptum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dis- + scrībō (“to write”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan traces scrībō to Proto-Italic *skreif-e/o- (“to carve”) and Proto-Indo-European *skreibʰ-e/o- (“to carve”).^[4] Cognate with Oscan scriftas (“written”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Terence,^[4] where a man asks whether he did not hand out the money to those he owed.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It means to distribute, deal out or allot, as in a Republican law, and to assign soldiers to units, as in Livy.^[2] Cicero uses it of ordering or arranging, and Varro of hair parted in two.^[2] The OLD notes much confusion with dēscrībō in manuscripts and editions, and treats here the senses that suit the prefix ⟨dis-⟩.^[2]

Timeline

• 190–159 BC – Terence of handing out money.^[5][4][6]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of parted hair.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of arranging.^[2][6]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of assigning soldiers to legions.^[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To distribute, deal out, allot; to assign soldiers to units; to arrange.^[2][5][1]
2. To divide up, separate.^[2][1]

Word family

• discrīptiō
• indiscriptus

Related words

• scrībō
• dēscrībō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de