Etymologically
Log in

defatigo

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the Latin word defatigo

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 250–184 BC, Plautus
Ultimate origin
Proto-Italic (*fati-)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin fatigo
French fatiguer
Latin defatigo

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [deː.faˈtiː.ɡoː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [de.faˈtiː.ɡo][1]

Forms

dēfatīgō (present infinitive dēfatīgāre, perfect active dēfatīgāvī, supine dēfatīgātum); first conjugation[1] It is also spelled dēfetīgō, the usual form in manuscripts.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin dē- + fatīgō (“to tire”).[2][1][4] De Vaan bases fatīgō and its family on a noun Proto-Italic *fati- (“exhaustion”), preserved in affatim;[5] Dunkel explains the verb as a compound of that noun with the root of agō.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus.[5] The OLD's first quotations are in Terence: in the Phormio a young woman may wear a man out, and in the Andria a man says he has been deceived but not worn down.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to tire out or exhaust in body or mind: Caesar writes of fresh troops relieving tired ones and wearing out his men.[3][2] Columella uses it of soil exhausted by the yield of the previous year, Seneca of breaking the force of a blow.[2] In the passive it is to lose heart, and with a gerundive to grow weary of doing something: Cicero urges his hearer not to tire of saving good men.[2] Church Latin glosses it to exhaust, wear out, tire.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus.[5][7]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence of being worn out.[2][7]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar of tired troops.[3][7]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, to weary of saving good men.[2][7]
  • 1st century AD – Columella of exhausted soil.[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To exhaust, tire out, wear out;[2][3][1][6] to exhaust the fertility of land; to break the force of.[2]
  2. (passive) To lose heart, be discouraged; to grow weary of.[2][1]

Word family

  • dēfatīgātiō
  • indēfatīgātus

References

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

“Defatigo.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/defatigo. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·