mutilo

Forms

mutilō (present infinitive mutilāre, perfect active mutilāvī, supine mutilātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin mutilus (“maimed, docked”) + -ō.^[2][3][1][4] De Vaan finds no etymology for the adjective; he compares only Irish mut and Scottish Gaelic mutach (“short”).^[5][6]

The grammarian Donatus explained that animals without horns were called ⟨mutilī⟩, and rejected the view that the word came from multa (“fine, penalty”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and the TLL first record it in Terence;^[5][4] in the Hecyra it is used jokingly of fleecing someone, stripping him of his money.^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

Its main sense is to damage something by cutting off a part: Livy has men left with their noses and ears cut off, and also uses it of crippled ships, while Ovid has a snake whose tail has been cut off and a tree whose branches have been lopped.^[2][3][7] Curtius uses it of bodies maimed by axes.^[3]

It was also used of reducing or shortening: Cicero speaks of an army reduced in numbers, and later jurists of a diminished estate and of curtailed rights.^[8][7] Pliny the Elder uses it of mangling words in speech.^[8][7] Döderlein notes that it was said of lesser mutilations, such as the loss of horns, a finger or the nose, while truncō was used of greater ones such as the loss of limbs.^[9]

It continues in the Tuscan dialect of Lucca as motolare,^[4] and English took mutilate from its past participle in the 16th century.^[6]

Timeline

• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it jokingly of fleecing a person.^[4][7][10]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of an army reduced in numbers.^[8][10]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of noses and ears cut off.^[2][10]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of mangling words.^[8][10]
• 1530s – English borrows mutilate, first of books and writings.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To maim, mutilate by cutting or breaking off a part.^[2][3]
2. To cut off, lop off.^[2][3]
3. To reduce, diminish, shorten.^[8][7]
4. To mangle (words) in speaking.^[8][7]
5. (humorous) To fleece, strip of money.^[7][8]

Word family

• admutilō
• dēmūtilō
• immutilātus
• mutilātiō

Related words

• truncō

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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
10. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de