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dissuadeo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [dɪsˈsʷaː.de.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [disˈsʷaː.de.o][1]

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

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