Etymologically
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commoror

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈkɔm.mɔ.rɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈkɔm.mo.ror][1]

Forms

commoror (present infinitive commorārī, perfect active commorātus sum); first conjugation, deponent[1] Priscian records an active commorō.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin con- + moror (“to delay”).[4][1][3] De Vaan takes moror either as a verb made from mora (“delay”) or as an old iterative; the noun goes back to Proto-Italic *morā and Proto-Indo-European *morh₂-.[5] Cognate with Old Irish maraid (“lasts, remains”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,[5] whose Amphitruo has it transitively: “has an omen delayed you?”[4]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is to detain or delay, but it is mostly intransitive: to stay or remain somewhere, as in Terence's “why did you stay there so long?”, to wait or be inactive, and to continue in a state, as Cicero's staying under arms in the civil war.[4][2] In rhetoric it is to dwell on a point, as in Cicero's Orator.[4] Church Latin glosses it “tarry, stay, abide, dwell”.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of being delayed by an omen.[4][5][7]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence of staying somewhere.[4][7]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of dwelling on a point.[4][7]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of delayed menstruation.[4][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To detain, delay.[4][1]
  2. To stay, remain, linger; to wait, be inactive.[4][2][1]
  3. To continue in a state or condition.[4]
  4. (rhetoric) To dwell on a point.[4][2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de