Etymologically
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aegre

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈae̯.ɡreː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈɛː.ɡre][1]

Forms

aegrē (comparative aegrius, superlative aegerrimē)[1]

Etymology

It is the adverb of aeger (“sick, troubled”), formed with -ē.[2][1] De Vaan traces the adjective to Proto-Italic *aigro- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂eig-ro-.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus, Asinaria: no slave could be worse, nor one to guard against aegrius, “with more difficulty”.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is painfully, with difficulty, hardly or scarcely.[2] With verbs of bearing it is with pain or displeasure: aegrē ferre or aegrē patī is to take something ill, as in Terence.[2] It is also grudgingly or reluctantly, as Livy's Attalus allowing something, and aegrē facere with a dative is to cause someone pain or trouble, already in Plautus.[2] Church Latin glosses it “with difficulty, with regret, unwillingly”.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus in the senses “with difficulty” and in aegrē facere.[2][4]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence of displeasure.[2][4]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy in the sense “reluctantly”.[2][4]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. Painfully, with difficulty; hardly, scarcely.[2][1][5]
  2. With pain or displeasure, aegrē ferre, to take ill, be vexed at.[2]
  3. Grudgingly, reluctantly.[2][1][5]
  4. So as to cause pain, aegrē facere, to annoy, cause trouble (to).[2]
  • aeger
  • aegritūdō
  • aegrōtus

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes vix, “scarcely”, of a thing that nearly did not happen, from aegrē, “with much ado”, which looks at the agent, anxious whether he will succeed, and is opposed to facile.[6] With ferre it stands beside graviter and molestē ferre, all of a silent displeasure, as opposed to the open anger of īrāscor.[6]

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 i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  6. ^ a b Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper