Etymologically
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condolesco

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kɔn.dɔˈɫeːs.koː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [kon.doˈlɛs.ko][1]

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]

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