vastare

Vastare is a Latin verb of the first conjugation meaning to lay waste, ravage, or devastate. The infinitive is vastāre, and the principal parts are vastō, vastāre, vastāvī, vastātum. The verb is built on the root vast- (from vastus, meaning empty or waste) and is closely related to devastāre, a form used in Latin with a similar sense of causing widespread destruction.

Usage and forms. Vastare is transitive and takes a direct object in the accusative, denoting what is laid waste. It appears frequently in historical narratives and poetry to describe campaigns of destruction. A typical example is Hostēs urbem vastāvērunt, “The enemies ravaged the city.” Tenses such as the imperfect vastābant and the perfect vastāvērunt are common in surviving Latin texts, especially in accounts of warfare. The noun vastātiō (ravaging, devastation) is formed from the same root and appears in later Latin to name the act or result of devastation.

Relationship to other languages and English. The Latin root vast- contributes to concepts of ruin and waste that recur in Romance languages and in English vocabulary. The English verb devastate and the noun devastation ultimately derive from Latin devastāre or related forms, often via Old French, reflecting a semantic trajectory from ruin to widespread destruction.

See also. Devastare; devastation; vastus (the adjective meaning empty or waste) and related lexical families.