aegrotus

Forms

aegrōtus (feminine aegrōta, neuter aegrōtum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin aeger (“sick”), an old formation: the endings ⟨-ōtus⟩ and ⟨-ōtāre⟩ are not productive in Latin.^[2][3] De Vaan suggests ⟨*aigroh1-to-⟩ “with sickness”, built on a noun ⟨*aigro-⟩ that may survive in aegrum (“distress, grief”).^[3] Wiktionary likewise derives it from that noun with an adjective suffix, and calls the exact development uncertain.^[1] De Vaan traces the adjective to Proto-Italic *aigro-.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first,^[3][4] in the Curculio: hic qui aegrotus incubat in Aesculapi fano, this man who lies sick in the temple of Aesculapius.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It means sick in body, and as a noun a sick person or patient;^[2] Terence says that when we are well we all easily give good advice to the sick, and Cicero quotes the saying that while there is breath there is hope for the sick.^[6] Accius uses it of a sick mind, and Terence of a lovesick one.^[2] Lewis & Short note that Cicero uses it rarely.^[6] Döderlein distinguishes it from aeger, the general word for any illness or distress of mind or body: aegrotus is someone actually ill in body, and is used of people, while morbidus is used of animals.^[7] Church Latin keeps the sense sick, ill.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of a sick man lying in the temple of Aesculapius.^[2][5][4]
• 190–159 BC – Terence, of the sick and of a lovesick mind.^[2][6][4]
• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius, of a sick mind.^[2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero quotes the saying that the sick have hope while they breathe.^[6][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. sick, ill, diseased in body; as a noun, a sick person, patient.^[2][6][1]
2. Sick in mind.^[2][1]
3. lovesick, pining.^[2]

Word family

• aegrōtō

Related words

• aeger
• aegritūdō
• morbidus

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d 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 e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson