dissuadeo

Forms

dissuādeō (present infinitive dissuādēre, perfect active dissuāsī, supine dissuāsum); second conjugation, no passive^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dis- + suādeō (“to advise, urge”).^[2][1][3] Etymonline relates suādeō to suāvis (“sweet”) and traces it to Proto-Indo-European *swād- (“sweet, pleasant”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL dates it from Plautus.^[3] In Plautus Love shows off what it advises against, and a son says he advised against something, to which his mother replies with a sarcastic “a fine son!”.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It is to advise against a course of action, to oppose it by argument, and to advise someone not to do something, as in the Rhetorica ad Herennium.^[2] Lewis & Short note it as a term of public law, of speaking against a proposed law: Cicero asks who ever urged an agrarian law before so favourable an assembly as the one before which he opposed it.^[6] Hyginus has someone who broke faith on the advice of friends.^[2] Porphyrio and some poor editions have ⟨dēsuādeō⟩.^[3] Church Latin glosses it to advise or speak against, dissuade.^[7] English dissuade comes from it, partly through French, from the 1510s.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of advising against something.^[2][3][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of opposing an agrarian law.^[6][5]
• 1510s – English dissuade.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To advise against, dissuade from, oppose by argument; of a proposed law, to speak against.^[2][6][1][7]
2. To advise someone not to do something.^[2]
3. Without an object, to give advice against a proposal.^[2]

Word family

• dissuāsiō
• dissuāsor

Related words

• suādeō
• persuādeō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson