Etymologically
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dispello

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [dɪsˈpɛl.loː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [disˈpɛl.lo][1]

Forms

dispellō (present infinitive dispellere, perfect active dispulī, supine dispulsum); third conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dis- (“apart”) + pellō (“to drive, push”).[2][3][1][4] De Vaan traces pellō to Proto-Italic *pelna- and Proto-Indo-European *pl-n(e)-h₂- (“to approach”), explaining the meaning by a shift from bringing something closer to pushing it;[4] Umbrian ampentu, used of an act at the sacrifice, has the same nasal present.[4] Cognate with Ancient Greek πίλναμαι (pílnamai, “to approach”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and the TLL date it from Plautus,[4][3] but the TLL notes that forms of the present stem are rare, found only a few times in Seneca, Statius, Serenus Sammonicus and Ammianus.[3] The OLD's earliest example is Cicero's pecudēs quae dispulsae suī generis sequuntur gregēs, “cattle that, when scattered, follow herds of their own kind”.[2]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is to drive apart or scatter by force, of animals, people and ships.[2][3][5] Lucretius uses it of matter scattered from its union.[5] Figuratively it means to drive away a condition: in Cicero, philosophy removes darkness from the mind as from the eyes.[2] In Virgil Sleep parts the air and scatters the shadows.[2] Servius explains it as “separated” and notes the difference between the prefixes ⟨dī-⟩ and ⟨dē-⟩.[3] Lewis & Short call it rare but classical.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – First attested, in Plautus.[4][3][6]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius, of scattered matter.[5][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, of scattered cattle and of darkness driven from the mind.[2][6]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil, of ships scattered by a storm and of shadows.[2][5][6]
  • c. 1400 – English borrows it as dispel.[7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To drive apart, scatter, disperse.[2][5][1]
  2. (figurative) To drive away, dispel (a condition, a feeling).[2][5][1]
  3. To part, divide (the air, the waves).[2][5]

Word family

  • dispulsus

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 j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f 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 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
  7. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com