Etymologically
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delabor

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [deːˈɫaː.bɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [deˈlaː.bor][1]

Forms

dēlābor (present infinitive dēlābī, perfect active dēlāpsus sum); third conjugation, deponent[1] Manilius has the participle spelled dēlābsus.[2] Manuscripts and inscriptions often confuse it with dīlābor.[3]

Etymology

It is from Latin dē- + lābor (“to glide, slip”).[2][1][3] De Vaan lists lābor with the family of labō (“to totter”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first example in the OLD is Cicero's dream of a man who fell into a river and was seen nowhere.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to fall or drop, also of parts of the body that slip down, as in Celsus, and of standing things that fall, as Tacitus' statue of Victory at Camulodunum.[2] It is also to descend through the air, as Cicero's “a divine man come down from heaven into the province”, to glide down, and of stars to sink.[2][5] Of water it is to flow down, as in Varro.[2] Figuratively it is to fall into a condition or an illness, to sink into a vice, as Cicero's Appius who slips into buffoonery, of strength to fail, and to drift towards an attitude or into a topic of conversation.[2]

Church Latin glosses it “fall down, glide down, sink”.[6]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of falling, descending from heaven and slipping into a topic.[2][7]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro of rainwater flowing down.[2][7]
  • 14–37 AD – Celsus of parts of the body slipping down.[2][7]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus of a fallen statue.[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To fall, drop, slip down.[2][5][1]
  2. To fly or glide down, descend; of stars, to sink.[2][5][1]
  3. Of water, to flow down.[2]
  4. To fall into a condition; to sink morally; of strength, to fail.[2][5]
  5. To drift towards an attitude; to slip into a subject.[2]

Word family

  • dēlapsus

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 m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de