aegresco

Forms

aegrēscō (present infinitive aegrēscere); third conjugation, no passive, no perfect or supine stems^[1]

Etymology

It is an inchoative, from Latin aegreō (“to be sick”) + -scō,^[2][1][3] and that verb is derived from aeger (“sick”).^[4][5] The grammarian Charisius already gave it as an inchoative made from the adjective, noting that such verbs from nouns have no perfect.^[4] De Vaan traces the adjective to Proto-Italic *aigro- and Proto-Indo-European *h2eig-ro-.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Lucretius on,^[5] who uses it of falling ill (morbīs aegrēscimus īsdem, “we fall sick of the same diseases”) and of the mind falling sick.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Pliny the Elder writes that ravens fall sick for sixty days.^[2] Virgil uses it of a state of mind that grows worse: Turnus' violence is aggravated by the attempt to heal it (aegrēscitque medendō).^[2][6] Statius uses it of mental distress and of fretting at good fortune,^[2] and Tacitus of someone made ill by long anxiety.^[2][3]

In Late Latin it was used of the soul (Lactantius), of plants and fruit trees, and often by Ennodius and Macrobius of patients.^[4]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of falling sick, in body and mind.^[2][7]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of passion growing worse.^[2][7]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of ravens.^[2][7]
• c. 45–96 AD – Statius uses it of mental distress.^[2][7]
• c. 250–317 AD – Lactantius uses it of the soul.^[4][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To become ill, fall sick.^[2][8]
2. To suffer mental distress; to fret, be dissatisfied.^[2][3]
3. Of feelings: to grow worse, be aggravated.^[2][6]

Related words

• aeger

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press