disfacio

Forms

disfaciō (present infinitive disfacere, perfect active disfēcī, supine disfactum); third (-iō variant) conjugation^[1] Medieval spellings include diffaciō, deffaciō and defaciō.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin dis- (“un-”) + faciō (“to do, make”).^[1][3] The MLW compares Old French desfaire,^[3] and the DMLBS connects the British uses with Old French desfacier.^[4] Etymonline gives the source of the Old French verb as Vulgar Latin *diffaciō (“undo, destroy”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Wiktionary dates its first record to AD 779.^[1] In the Frankish capitularies the MLW cites it of a count who kills or maims a man out of hatred or malice rather than in doing justice.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In early medieval Latin it meant to demolish a building, to destroy, to maim and to do violence to someone.^[2][1] The MLW records it of a charter of freedom that has been done away with, and figuratively in the sense of bringing to nothing or frustrating.^[3] Du Cange cites a charter of 941 that forbids the heirs to break or undo its terms, and has it in the general sense of abolishing or making void.^[6]

In England the Pipe Rolls use it for the mutilation of convicted men, such as a false moneyer; it was also said of things damaged or destroyed, such as a village destroyed when the king had his ditch dug, and of acts that were undone.^[4] The verb lives on in the Romance languages: Italian disfare, Spanish deshacer, Romanian desface and Old French desfaire.^[1] From the past participle of the Old French verb, through Anglo-French, English took defeat.^[5]

Timeline

• 779 – First recorded.^[1]
• 941 – A charter forbids anyone to break or undo (disfacere) its terms.^[6]
• 1155 – The English Pipe Rolls record a payment for mutilating a false moneyer.^[4]
• 1174 – A pact between the Sultan and the Pisans uses it.^[6]
• late 14th century – English defeten comes, through Anglo-French, from the Old French past participle desfait.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (Medieval Latin) To pull down, demolish (a building).^[2][1]
2. (Medieval Latin) To destroy, do away with.^[2][3][1]
3. (Medieval Latin) To maim, mutilate; also to kill.^[2][3][4]
4. (Medieval Latin) To do violence to, hurt.^[2][1]
5. (Medieval Latin) To annul, make void, undo.^[3][6][4]

Related words

• English defeat

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre