disiunctus

Forms

disiūnctus (feminine disiūncta, neuter disiūnctum); first/second-declension adjective; comparative disiūnctior, superlative disiūnctissimus^[1] It is also spelled diiūnctus and disjūnctus.^[1][2] The adverb is disiūnctim.^[2]

Etymology

It is the perfect passive participle from Latin disiungō (“to unyoke, separate”), used as an adjective.^[1][3][2] disiungō is a compound of dis- and iungō (“to join, yoke”),^[4] which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *jung-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *(H)iunégti (“to yoke”).^[5] Cognate with Sanskrit युनज्मि (yunájmi, “I yoke”), Ancient Greek ζεύγνυμι (zeúgnumi, “to yoke”) and Lithuanian jùngti (“to tie, join, yoke”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero,^[4] who speaks of a war waged in two widely separated places, duobus in locis disiunctissimis.^[1]

Semantic evolution

It means separated, distant or set apart, and of words or style disconnected.^[1] It also means different or distinct: Cicero says that the teachers of living and of speaking were once not different people but the same.^[1] Paulus in the Digest uses it of things treated separately, the Rhetorica ad Herennium of clauses distinguished by different synonyms, and Gellius of disjunctive propositions.^[1] Wiktionary notes its use as a taxonomic epithet, “separated, distinct”.^[2]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of distant places and of distinct teachers.^[1][4]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius, of disjunctive propositions.^[1][4]
• 1st half of the 3rd century AD – Paulus, of things treated separately.^[1][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Separated, distant, set apart;^[1] of style, disconnected.^[1]
2. Different, distinct;^[1][2] treated separately.^[1]
3. (rhetoric, logic) Of propositions, disjunctive.^[1]

Related words

• disiungō
• disiūnctiō
• iungō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
3. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill