condolesco

Forms

condolēscō (present infinitive condolēscere, perfect active condoluī); third conjugation, no supine stem^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin con- + doleō (“to be in pain”) + -scō,^[2][1] an inchoative like perdolēscō and indolēscō.^[3] VOLI derives it from condoleō,^[4] but Wiktionary notes that condoleō is an Ecclesiastical Latin word which appears much later.^[1] De Vaan traces doleō to Proto-Italic *dolē- (“to pain, cause pain”) and Proto-Indo-European *dolh₁-eie- (“to split”), pain being felt as being torn apart.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Plautus' Truculentus (632), where the speaker's head has started to ache from the wind, with the sufferer in the dative ⟨mihi⟩.^[2][3] De Vaan notes that Old Latin still expressed the one who feels pain in the dative.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it is used mostly in the perfect, of a foot, a tooth or a side that aches (Cicero), of a body attacked by cold (Horace), of a feigned headache (Tibullus) and of sores that hurt at a touch (Seneca).^[6][7] Cicero also uses it of the mind, for feeling grief.^[2][7]

In Late Latin it came to mean suffering together with another: in Tertullian the soul suffers with the injured body,^[6][7] and in Augustine the mind is moved to pain by pity.^[7] Ecclesiastical Latin used it for having compassion,^[8] and medieval writers for both bodily pain and being moved by pity.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a head that aches.^[2][3][10]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of aching limbs and of grief.^[2][6]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of a body attacked by cold.^[6][7]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of sores that hurt at a touch.^[6][7]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it of the soul suffering with the body.^[6][7]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it of the mind pained by pity.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To begin to ache, be painful; to feel pain.^[2][6]
2. To feel grief, grieve.^[2][7]
3. (Late Latin) To suffer with, sympathize with.^[6][7]
4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To have compassion.^[8][9]

Related words

• doleō
• dolor

Usage notes

Lewis and Short call it rare but classical, in prose and poetry, and most frequent in the perfect condoluī “it aches”.^[6]

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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b 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 c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
10. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de