diverbero

Forms

dīverberō (present infinitive dīverberāre, supine dīverberātum); first conjugation, no perfect stem^[1] The OLD and Georges give a perfect dīverberāvī;^[2][3] Lewis & Short record no perfect.^[4] Manuscripts often have dēverberō instead.^[5]

Etymology

It is from Latin dis- + verberō¹ (“to beat, lash”).^[2][1][6] The simple verb comes from verbera (“blows, lashes”), which de Vaan takes, with the derivative verbēna, to point to an old s-stem.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it first, uncertainly, in Terence, and then in Lucretius,^[5] who speaks of a force that would split things apart with a blow, meaning to cleave or split.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

In poetry and post-Augustan prose it meant striking apart:^[4] Lucretius has heat beating through the airy waves, Virgil an arrow cleaving the breezes and a sword striking at shades in vain, Curtius waves split by a sea beast, and Seneca air breaking up the earth.^[5][4] It also meant to beat hard: Apuleius has it of udders, and Lactantius of beating a slave.^[3][5] Tertullian uses it of being beaten with a reed and fists, and Augustine reports the Epicurean view that the soul is scattered like smoke by the wind.^[3][8]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of a force splitting things apart.^[5][9]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of an arrow cleaving the air.^[5][9]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it for beating hard.^[3][9]
• c. 250–317 AD – Lactantius uses it of beating a slave.^[4][9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To split or part by striking, cleave, scatter.^[2][4]
2. To strike violently, batter, cudgel.^[2][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de