aerumnosus

Forms

aerumnōsus (feminine aerumnōsa, neuter aerumnōsum, superlative aerumnōsissimus); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin aerumna (“toil, hardship”) + -ōsus.^[2][1][3] The origin of aerumna is unknown: it is often taken as a loan of Ancient Greek αἰρομένη (airoménē), a participle, but de Vaan notes that Greek never uses this form as a noun meaning “burden”, and an Etruscan source, often proposed, cannot be proved.^[4] Isidore derived it from that noun and explained it as one who is hungry and thirsty for want.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its earliest quotation in the OLD is from Plautus, who has Vlixem audivi fuisse aerumnosissimum, “I have heard that Ulysses suffered very many hardships”;^[2] Köbler dates it only from Cicero.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It describes people who suffer hardship and misery,^[2][6] and, less often, things that cause it, as in a tragic line of Accius quoted by Cicero about sailing on a “sea of troubles”.^[2][6][7] Cicero uses it in a list beside miser, afflictus and calamitōsus, and Lewis & Short note that he has it only once in his speeches.^[6] Seneca has nihil est aerumnōsius sapiente, “nothing is more wretched than the wise man”.^[7][6] Medieval writers in Britain used it of this “wretched” world and of distressing errors.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses the superlative of Ulysses.^[2][3]
• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius has aerumnōsum salum, “a calamitous sea”.^[6][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it in his philosophical works and once in the Verrines.^[6][3]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses the comparative.^[6][3]
• Medieval Latin – Anselm and other British writers use it of a wretched world.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Full of hardship, wretched, miserable.^[2][6][1]
2. Causing distress, calamitous.^[2]

Related words

• aerumna

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press