deleo.
to destroy, raze, annihilate
Meaning & usage
to destroy, raze, annihilate
to finish, terminate, put an end to
to delete (e.g. Ecclesiastical: from the book of life)
Where this word comes from
Traditionally taken as a back-formation from dēlēvī, originally the perfect tense of dēlinō (“to wipe off”), from dē- + linō (“to daub, smear”). However, De Vaan is skeptical of the derivation due to the lack of concurrent attestation of dēlinō with linō and lēvī (all attestations of dēlinō come later), and prefers Meiser's derivation from a causative dē- + *oleō, the root being Proto-Indo-European *h₃elh₁- (“to destroy”), comparing Hittite [script needed] (hallanna/i-ᶦ, “to trample down”), Ancient Greek ὄλλῡμι (óllūmi, “to wreck, destroy”). False cognate of Ancient Greek δηλέομαι (dēléomai, “to destroy, annihilate, spoil”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.