Etymologically
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defessus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [deːˈfɛs.sʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [deˈfɛs.sus][1]

Forms

dēfessus (feminine dēfessa, neuter dēfessum, comparative defessior, superlative defessissimus); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is the perfect participle from Latin dēfetīscor (“to grow weary”), used as an adjective.[2][1][3] De Vaan thinks the participle is the older form: from *dē-fat-to- the vowel was regularly reduced, and the simple fessus (“tired”) was later detached from it.[4] He bases the whole family on a noun Proto-Italic *fati- (“exhaustion”), kept in affatim (“to satiety”), and finds no convincing PIE root.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus' Epidicus has “how tired we are of searching”.[5] Köbler dates it from Cicero.[6]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short note that the finite verb is rare and early, but the participle classical and frequent.[2] It means worn out in body or mind, and with an infinitive tired of doing something.[5] Cicero applies it to a senate grown slack and weary, and Virgil to the men who abandoned Aeneas, exhausted.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of being tired of searching.[5][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of a weary senate.[5][6]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of exhausted companions.[5][6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Worn out, exhausted, weary; with an infinitive, tired of.[5][2][1]
  2. Disheartened.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de