disiungo

Forms

disiungō (present infinitive disiungere, perfect active disiūnxī, supine disiūnctum); third conjugation^[1] The spelling diiungō is also found, and an inscription has the perfect stem diunx-.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin dis- + iungō (“to yoke, join”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces iungō to Proto-Italic *jung-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *(H)iunégti (“to yoke”), a nasal present, and lists the compound among its derivatives.^[4] Cognate with Sanskrit युनज्मि (yunájmi, “to yoke”), Ancient Greek ζεύγνυμι (zeúgnumi) and Lithuanian jùngti (“to tie, join, yoke”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[4] whose Asinaria has nē nōs disiunge amantīs, “don't part us lovers”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense in the OLD is to unyoke draught animals, in Cicero, Horace, Ovid and Columella;^[2][5] Varro uses it for weaning lambs from the teat.^[2][5] More generally it meant to separate or keep apart in space or time: Cicero writes that he and his correspondent are separated by distance of places and times, Sallust has a river dividing two kingdoms, and Virgil's Italīs longē disiungimur ōrīs is “we are kept far from Italian shores”.^[2][5]

Figuratively it meant to dissociate or estrange, and in the passive to be alien to something;^[2] Plautus has disiunge inimīcitiās, to break off a quarrel, and Cicero and Livy use it of breaking up concord or an old friendship.^[2] It also meant to distinguish, and in Cicero to set things apart as logical opposites.^[2] The TLL notes that Boethius uses it often.^[3] Church Latin has it for putting asunder.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of parting lovers.^[2][7]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of weaning lambs.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of unyoking animals, of separation and of logical distinction.^[2][7]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of being kept far from Italy.^[2][7]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of unyoking an ox from work.^[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To unyoke (draught animals); to wean (young animals).^[2][5]
2. To separate, keep apart (in space or time); to divide in two.^[2][5]
3. (figurative) To dissociate, estrange; in the passive, to be alien (to).^[2]
4. To sever, break off (a friendship or quarrel).^[2]
5. To distinguish, differentiate; to set apart as logically opposed.^[2]
6. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To put asunder.^[6]

Word family

• disiūnctim
• disiūnctiō

Related words

• coniungō
• dēiungō
• sēiungō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c 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 e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de