Etymologically
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domito

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈdɔ.mɪ.toː][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈdɔː.mi.to][1]

Forms

domitō (present infinitive domitāre, perfect active domitāvī, supine domitātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin domō (“to tame”) + -tō, a frequentative.[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Virgil, in the Georgics, uses it of taming oxen.[4][3] Köbler dates Virgil 70–19 BC.[5]

Semantic evolution

It meant to tame and break in animals, oxen and a team of horses in Virgil, lions in the Ciris, every kind of four-footed beast in Manilius, and elephants in Curtius and Pliny.[3][4] The TLL thinks it was first a word of the hexameter poets that passed into prose.[3] Lewis & Short call it very rare.[4] Silius Italicus uses it of subduing peoples in war and of taming passions, and Pliny the Younger of the winds.[6]

Medieval Latin used it of animals and men, of taming and conquering.[7] It is the source of French dompter, and through Old French danter of English daunt, recorded about 1300 as “to subdue, conquer”.[3][8]

Timeline

  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of oxen and horses.[4][5]
  • 1st century AD – Manilius uses it of all kinds of animals.[3][5]
  • 25–101 AD – Silius Italicus uses it of subduing peoples.[6][5]
  • c. 1300 – English daunt is recorded.[8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To tame, break in (animals).[2][1]
  2. To subdue, conquer.[6][7]

Word family

  • edomito

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  7. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com