vitio

Forms

vitiō (present infinitive vitiāre, perfect active vitiāvī, supine vitiātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin vitium (“fault, defect”) + -ō.^[2][3][4] De Vaan traces vitium to Proto-Italic *witio- (“deviation, fault”) and, following Walde and Hofmann, to Proto-Indo-European *(d)ui-tio- (“apart, wrong”), from the root of duo (“two”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Terence.^[5] In the OLD's quotation from Terence someone asks whether it is quite certain that the girl was violated.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

It is to cause faults, spoil or impair: Ovid has blood spurting as when a pipe of flawed lead bursts, Horace a boar gone bad, and Livy writes that memory has been corrupted by funeral eulogies.^[2] It is also to spoil by a base admixture, as hemlock in honey in Horace.^[2] In law and religion it is to invalidate proceedings or days of business for a technical fault: Cicero speaks of power to block or invalidate elections by the auspices.^[2] Lewis & Short give corrumpō and noceō as synonyms and note it is mostly figurative.^[3] Church Latin glosses it to injure, damage, spoil, corrupt, and to nullify.^[7] English vitiate comes from its past participle, from the 1530s.^[4]

Timeline

• 190–159 BC – Terence of violating a girl.^[2][5][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of invalidating elections.^[2][6]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of spoiled meat and adulterated honey.^[2][6]
• 1530s – English vitiate.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To spoil, impair, damage; of food, to make go bad.^[2][3][1][7]
2. To corrupt by a base admixture, adulterate.^[2][3]
3. To violate a virgin.^[2][1]
4. (law) To invalidate proceedings for a technical fault; to falsify.^[2][1][7]

Related words

• vitiōsitas
• vitiōsus
• vitium

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c 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 d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson