aeger

Forms

aeger (feminine aegra, neuter aegrum, comparative aegrior, superlative aegerrimus, adverb aegrē); first/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er)^[1]

Etymology

In de Vaan's reconstruction it is inherited from Proto-Italic *aigro-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eig-ro-, but he gives no cognates; he finds the link with Tocharian A ekär (“empty”) less probable because of the meaning.^[2][1] The OLD calls the origin doubtful,^[3] and the TLL tentatively compares Latvian īgt (“to be sullen”).^[4] Köbler cites Pokorny's Proto-Indo-European *aig- (“ill-humoured”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus,^[2][5] who has nunc tibi opust aegram ut tē adsimulēs, “now you must pretend to be ill”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Aeger is “ill, sick”, of the body or a part of it “diseased, injured”, with the cause in the ablative (Cicero: hominēs aegrī morbō gravī), and of health, of old age and of tainted air.^[3][6][1] It is “weary, faint” (Virgil: we sink down exhausted in mid-effort) and “weak”.^[3][1] Of the mind it is “troubled, anxious, sick at heart” (Ennius: animus aeger semper errat, “a sick mind always goes astray”).^[3][1] Seneca applies it to a corrupt state and a depraved mind, and Lucretius to painful, laboured sounds, the vāgītūs aegrī of infants.^[3] As a noun it is “a sick person, patient”.^[3][1]

Church Latin glosses it “sick, ill”.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: aegram ut tē adsimulēs.^[3][5]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius: animus aeger semper errat.^[3][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero: hominēs aegrī morbō gravī.^[3][5]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar has the noun, “a sick man”.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. ill, sick; diseased, injured.^[3][6][1][7]
2. Weary, faint; weak.^[3][1]
3. Troubled, anxious, sick at heart.^[3][1]
4. Corrupt, unsound; depraved.^[3]
5. Laboured, painful.^[3][1]

Noun

1. A sick person, patient.^[3][1]

Word family

• aegreō
• aegritūdō
• aegror
• aegrōtus

Related words

• aegrē
• aegrōtō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson