debilitas

Forms

dēbilitās f (genitive dēbilitātis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dēbilis (“weak, crippled”) + -tās.^[2][3][4] De Vaan explains dēbilis as an old compound of dē- with a noun for strength, from Proto-Indo-European *bel-o- (“strength, power”), cognate with Sanskrit बल (bála, “strength”) and Ancient Greek βέλτερος (bélteros, “better”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero uses it of the weakness of the tongue in the speech against Piso, and in the De finibus of weakness of mind and of bodily infirmity as an evil.^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

It is lameness, infirmity or physical weakness, of the limbs in Livy, of a foot in Labeo as Gellius quotes him, of the feet in Tacitus, and of the body in Suetonius.^[6] It is also feebleness of mind or character, and Martial uses it of the effeminate weakness of the galliambic metre.^[2] Stelten gives “weakness, infirmity, debility”.^[7] English debility appears in the early 15th century, from Old French or directly from Latin.^[8]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of weakness of body and mind.^[2][6][4]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, of weakness of the limbs.^[6][4]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial, of a feeble metre.^[2][4]
• early 15th century – debility appears in English.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. Physical weakness, lameness, infirmity, debility.^[2][6][1][7]
2. Feebleness of mind or character.^[2]

Word family

• dēbilitō

Related words

• dēbilis
• English debility

References

1. ^ a b c d 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. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com