morbide

Forms

morbide (plural morbides)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin morbidus (“sick, unhealthy”), from morbus (“disease”).^{[2][3][4][1][5]} The Latin noun, used of a disease of the whole body, has no known etymology.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in 1486, in an exposition of the Rule of Saint Benedict, in the sense “sick”, an isolated record.^[2][3] The GLLF gives the 15th-century sense as used of a sick ewe.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The medical language took the word up again in 1810 (Capuron and Nysten), with the narrower sense “relating to, characteristic of, or resulting from disease”.^[2][3][6] Soon after, in 1836, Balzac used it figuratively for what is unhealthy and abnormal, and by extension it described a taste for the disturbing and abnormal.^[2][3]

The derivatives morbidement (1839, in medicine) and morbidité (1849) followed.^[3][2] Morbidité is used in demographic statistics, and since 1923 also of the unhealthy character of a work of art.^[3][2]

Timeline

• 1486 – Isolated record in the sense “sick”.^[2][3]
• 1810 – Capuron and Nysten's medical dictionary uses it for “relating to disease”.^[2][6]
• 1836 – Balzac's Le Lys dans la vallée uses it figuratively for “unhealthy”.^[2][3]
• 1839 – Morbidement appears in medicine.^[2][3]
• 1849 – Morbidité is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (medicine) Relating to disease, pathological: état morbide.^[7][8][6]
2. Abnormal, unhealthy, coming from a mental disturbance: une fascination morbide.^[7][2]
3. Catering to depraved tastes: un film morbide.^[7]

Word family

• morbidement
• morbidité

Related words

• morbidesse
• Latin morbus

Usage notes

The Grand Robert has a separate morbide 2 (1690), a term of painting and sculpture for soft, delicate flesh tones, borrowed from Italian morbido (“soft, delicate”);^[4][9] Littré still gives this sense, “having morbidezza”.^[8] Bloch and Wartburg date morbidesse to 1798, and the Italian form morbidezza to about 1590 in Montaigne.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 6/3, 124b
6. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France