divarico

Forms

dīvāricō (present infinitive dīvāricāre, perfect active dīvāricāvī, supine dīvāricātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin dis- + vāricō, from the prefix of separation and vāricō (“to straddle”).^[2][3][4] The simple verb is derived from vārus¹ (“bent outwards, bow-legged”),^[5] whose further origin is uncertain: de Vaan cautiously compares vānus and vāstus and reconstructs Proto-Italic *wā-ro- (“going apart”), with a question mark.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cato the Elder uses it in his work on farming for spreading apart branches when pruning and for setting cuttings apart in the ground.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it means to set something wide apart, above all a person's legs: in the Verrines Cicero has Sopater set astride a statue and bound to it.^[2][7][3] Vitruvius uses it of beams spread apart at the bottom,^[3] and Varro has it intransitively, of hooves that splay out.^[8][9] Lewis and Short call it very rare.^[8]

Ammianus Marcellinus and Late writers still use it of a body stretched apart.^[3][9] The MLW records a wider medieval range: to stretch out, to open the mouth or eyes wide, to tear apart, to branch and to scatter, and intransitively to gape or stand apart.^[10]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it for spreading branches and cuttings apart.^[3][11]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it intransitively, of splayed hooves.^[8][11]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a man set astride a statue.^[2][3][11]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of beams set apart at the base.^[3][11]
• c. 390 AD – Ammianus Marcellinus uses it of a man whose legs are spread apart.^[3][11]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To spread or set wide apart; to place with the legs apart, set astride.^[2][8][7]
2. (transitive) To make something splay out (branches, cuttings, beams).^[2][3]
3. (intransitive) To spread out, stand apart.^[8][9]
4. (Medieval Latin) To open wide (the mouth, the eyes); to tear apart; to scatter.^[10]

Related words

• vārus¹
• vāricō
• vāricōsus
• praevāricor

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
10. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
11. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de