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“detect” in Latin

The English word detect itself goes back to Latin tegō, through detectus.

Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864

detect
deprehendere (to catch or find a man out in a bad action; e.g., in facinore manifesto, in the very act, in adulterio, etc., also deprehendere falsas gemmas): comprehendere (also to find out anybody in a bad action, or to discover the bad action itself; comprehendere fures, Catullus; adulterium, Cic.): reperire (to find): invenlre (e.g., maleficium): comperire (to discover the whole of anything): patefacere (to detect and make its existence manifest; e.g., conjurationem, Cic.): to detect faults in anybody, vitia in aliquo videre: to detect and refute what is false, falsa deprehendere et repellere (Quint.): to detect barbarisms, deprehendere, quae barbara sunt (Quint.): to detect and expose the impudent falsehood of the whole evidence, totius testimonii fictam audaciam manifesto comprehensam atque oppressam tenere (Cic.): to have detected anything by his scouts, per exploratores cognovisse aliquid. ☞ Detegere = to uncover, to declare, to reveal, betray, etc.; it must not be used for to detect = “to find out,” etc.; but when “to be detected” = to reveal itself, detegi or se detegere may be used; e.g., [id quod inseritur] ipsa coloris inaequalitate detegitur, Quint., 12, 9, 17; the word is rare in the Augustan Age; once in Cic., not in Caes. If the conspiracy was detected by me, si conjuratio per me patefacta est: detected wickedness, scelus manifestum atque deprehensum (Cic.), or manifesto compertum atque deprehensum (Cic.): detected, compertus (of persons, with genitive, of crime, stupri, sacrilegii, etc., Liv., ; also of things): patefactus (laid open): deprehensus: detected in the commission of adultery with anybody, uxor in alicujus stupro comperta (Suet.).

Quick answer

What is the Latin word for detect?
The usual Latin words for “detect” are dēprehendō, comprehendō, reperiō; also comperiō, patefaciō, Catullus. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.

Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.