Etymologically
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disturbo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [dɪsˈtʊr.boː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [disˈtur.bo][1]

Forms

disturbō (present infinitive disturbāre, perfect active disturbāvī, supine disturbātum); first conjugation[1] Lucretius has the contracted perfect disturbat for disturbāvit.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin dis- + turbō (“to disturb”),[2][1][3] and turbō is made from turba (“commotion, crowd”).[4] De Vaan lists the compound among the derivatives of turba attested from Plautus on, and calls the further origin of the noun very uncertain.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL dates it from Plautus.[3][4] Terence has it of breaking up a wedding.[2]

Semantic evolution

It means to drive apart or throw into disorder, and of buildings to demolish, as in a municipal law forbidding anyone to unroof or pull down a building in the town.[2][5] Lucretius uses it of the long ages that destroy things, and Seneca of writers who deliberately jumble the order of words.[2] It is also to break up an activity or state, as Terence's plan to upset a marriage and Cicero's assembly broken up with swords.[2][5] Church Latin glosses it “drive apart, drive into confusion, disturb, upset”.[6] It survives in Old French destorber,[3] the source, together with the Latin, of English disturb (late 13th century).[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.[3][4][8]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence of breaking up a wedding.[2][8]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius of time destroying things.[2][8]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of an assembly broken up.[5][8]
  • late 13th century – English disturb.[7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To throw into disorder, disturb; to demolish.[2][5][1]
  2. To disarrange the order of words.[2]
  3. To break up, upset an activity or state.[2][5]

Word family

  • disturbatiō

References

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