derbita

From Gaulish *deruētā, from Proto-Celtic *derweitā, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *der- (“to tear apart”).^[1] Compare Lithuanian dedervinė (“rash, eruption”), Polish odra (“measles”) and Latin derbiōsus (“scabby”).

The Latin word is attested in late glosses. Its descendants in Romance languages point to a pronunciation [ˈdɛrbeta], with stress on the first syllable; the use of the letter i in the second syllable to represent the vowel [e] would be consistent with Late Latin/early Romance sound changes. The replacement of /rw/ with /rb/ was not a regular sound change, but there are a few parallel cases such as corvus (“raven”) > Occitan còrb.

derbita f (genitive derbitae); first declension

1. a disease of the skin, impetigo

   Synonym: impetīgō

First-declension noun.

• derbiōsus