Etymologically
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aeger

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈae̯.ɡɛr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈɛː.d͡ʒer][1]

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

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