demeto Latin · revision 34585

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=234–149 BC, Cato|origins=itc-pro *met-e-}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ˈdeː.mɛ.toː]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [ˈdɛː.me.to]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''dēmetō''' (present infinitive dēmetere, perfect active dēmessuī, supine dēmessum); third conjugation^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|dē-|metō|t2=to reap]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(TLL) De Vaan derives [[m|la|metō]] from [[itc-pro|*met-e-|t=to reap]], cognate with [[cy|medi|t=to mow, harvest]]; the further origin is disputed, and he finds a shift from [[ine-pro|*met-|t=to measure]] to “reap” conceivable.^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ De Vaan and the TLL date it from Cato,^(de Vaan 2008)^(TLL) who writes ''ubi hordeum demessuit'', “when he has reaped the barley”.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Its main sense is to reap or mow crops, as in Caesar, Cicero, Livy and Tacitus.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) It was also used of picking fruit, flowers and vegetables, as Virgil's flower plucked by a thumb, of taking honey and of shearing fleece or plumage; the TLL notes that Columella and Pliny the Elder use it most often.^(OLD 2012)^(TLL) Poets used it of cutting off a part of the body, as Horace does, and of cutting down men in battle, as Valerius Flaccus and Silius do.^(OLD 2012) The Vulgate has it of the earth being reaped.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ In Ecclesiastical Latin it keeps the senses “mow, harvest, reap, gather”.^(Stelten 1995)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of reaping barley.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of reaped grain.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a plucked flower.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of cutting off a part of the body.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 1st century AD – Columella uses it of taking honey and of plucking geese.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 25–101 AD – Silius uses it of cutting down men in battle.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Verb===

+ # To [[m|en|mow]], [[m|en|reap]] (crops, fields).^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # To pick, gather (fruit, flowers, vegetables); to take (honey); to [[m|en|shear]].^(OLD 2012)

+ # To cut off (a part of the body); to cut down (in battle).^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ The OLD lists a separate ''dēmētō'' only as a cross-reference to [[dimetor|alt=dīmētor]] “to measure out”.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}