The story
- Proto-Indo-European · derived from*weh₂st-“empty; wasted”
- Medieval Latin · borrowed fromdēvastāvit“he has wasted”
- English todaydevastavit
Borrowed from Medieval Latin dēvastāvit (“he has wasted”), from dēvastāre, from dēvastō (“to devastate, lay waste”), from de- + vastāre (from vastō (“to devastate, lay waste, ravage”), from vastus (“deserted, wasted”), from Proto-Indo-European *weh₂st- (“empty; wasted”)).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.