lánguido

Forms

lánguido (feminine lánguida, masculine plural lánguidos, feminine plural lánguidas)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Latin languĭdus (“faint, weakened; slack, lacking energy”).^[2][3][4][1] Corominas dates it from Juan de Mena in 1444 and notes that it is still missing from Alonso de Palencia, Nebrija, Percyvall and Covarrubias, and that neither Góngora nor the Quixote uses it.^[2][3]

The Latin adjective is formed from langueō (“to be faint, sluggish”) with the suffix -idus.^[5][1] De Vaan reconstructs *(s)lāngu- for the verb and, with a question mark, *sl-n-ǵ-u- (“weak, faint”), a nasalised variant of the root of laxus (“loose, slack”).^[6] Among the cognates he lists Ancient Greek λαγαρός (lagarós, “slack, thin”), Old Norse slakr and Old English slæc (“weak, slack”).^[6] The same Latin word was taken as Italian languido, French languide and English languid.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is in Juan de Mena (1444), after C. C. Smith; the next he finds is in Oudin's dictionary of 1607.^[2][3] The Diccionario de Autoridades defined it as “thin, gaunt and exhausted”, quoting María de Ágreda: todas son feas, obscuras, lánguidas, muertas y sin provecho “all are ugly, dark, languid, dead and useless”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Terreros called it a medical term meaning weak, emaciated and run down, and added that by likeness it was applied to other things, such as a slow river or a weakened army.^[9] Domínguez in 1846 gave the figurative sense “lacking courage or resolve”, and by 1869 the Academy defined the two senses it still gives: “thin, weak, tired” and “of little spirit, courage or energy”.^[10][11][4] From the Americas, Boyd-Bowman's first record (New Granada, 1789) speaks of un lánguido comercio “a sluggish trade”.^[12] Wiktionary marks the word as literary.^[1]

Fernando de Herrera (c. 1580) had already used the noun languideza, which Corominas thinks came rather from Italian languidezza; the Academy preferred languidez from 1734, and languidecer entered its dictionary in 1884.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 1444 – Juan de Mena uses the word, its first record.^[2][3]
• c. 1580 – Fernando de Herrera writes languideza.^[2][3]
• 1607 – Oudin's dictionary records lánguido.^[2]
• 1734 – Autoridades defines it as “thin, gaunt and exhausted” and records languidez.^[8][3]
• 1786–1793 – Terreros treats it as a medical term with figurative uses.^[9]
• 1789 – the first record from the Americas, in New Granada.^[12]
• 1884 – languidecer enters the Academy's dictionary.^[2][3]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin languidus.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. weak, faint, tired: Volvió del hospital pálido y lánguido.^[4][14][1]
2. Lacking spirit, energy or cheerfulness; listless, dejected (abatido): Nos miró con una sonrisa lánguida.^[4][14]

Word family

• languidez
• languidecer

Related words

• laxo

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 575
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. lánguido
4. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. lánguido
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. languidus
6. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 413
8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 359
9. ^ a b Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 2, 420
10. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 2, 1065
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 456
12. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. lánguido
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 588
14. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. lánguido