Etymologically
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exheredo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɛk.seːˈreː.doː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [eɡ.zeˈrɛː.do][1]

Forms

exhērēdō (present infinitive exhērēdāre, perfect active exhērēdāvī, supine exhērēdātum); first conjugation[1] It is also spelled exhērē-, exhaerē- and exērē- in manuscripts.[2]

Etymology

It is formed on exhērēs “disinherited” with the verb suffix ⟨-ō⟩, as the OLD puts it;[3] the TLL derives it from ex- and hērēs (“heir”).[2] De Vaan takes hērēs back to Proto-Italic *χērēd-, a noun made with a suffix ⟨-ēd-⟩ from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰeh₁ro- (“derelict”), and links it with Ancient Greek χῆρος (khêros, “orphaned, empty”) and χήρα (khḗra, “widow”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short's quotations begin with Cicero, who in the Philippics writes that someone disinheriting his brother was making the addressee his heir.[5]

Semantic evolution

It is to disinherit, in Cicero, the Rhetorica ad Herennium and Quintilian.[5][3] Pliny the Elder uses it figuratively, of depriving an heir of a thing by breaking it.[5]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero in the Philippics and the Pro Cluentio.[5][6]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of depriving an heir of a thing.[5][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To disinherit.[3][5][1]
  2. (figurative) To deprive an heir of something.[5]

Word family

  • exhērēdātiō
  • exheredator

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ 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 f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de