English → Latin
“detect” in Latin
dēprehendōto take away, seize, snatch, catch; to overtake; to surprise, apprehend, detect, find out, discovercomprehendōto lay hold of something on all sides; take or catch hold of, grasp, grip; to seize upon in a hostile manner, lay hold oreperiōto find, find out, learn, realise, ascertain, discover, inventcomperiōto learn, discover, ascertain or find out; to verify; to find guiltypatefaciōto open, throw open; to disclose, uncover, reveal, bring to lightCatullusa cognomen; a Latin poet of the late Roman Republic who wrote chiefly in the neoteric style of poetryadulteriumadultery; adulteration, contaminationmaleficiumcrime, misdeed, offence, evil deed, wrong, mischief; injury, hurt; fraud, deception
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.