Deponent

Deponent, a term in Latin Grammar applied to verbs having a passive form but an active signification. They are so called because they, as it were, lay down (Lat. depono) or dispense with the signification proper to their form. Such verbs had all originally a reflexive meaning, like the middle voice in Greek verbs; thus, vescor, 'I eat,' means radically, 'I feed myself.'—Deponent is also used for a person who makes a Deposition (q.v.).