deses

Forms

dēses (genitive dēsidis); third-declension one-termination adjective^[1] Lewis & Short think the nominative singular does not occur.^[2] The Appendix Probi insists on deses, not desis.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin dēsideō (“to sit idle”).^[5][4][1] That verb is a compound of dē- and sedeō (“to sit”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *sed-ē- (“to be seated”) and Proto-Indo-European *sed-eh1- (“to be seated”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it from Livy,^[7] who has sedemus desides domi, “we sit idle at home”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means idle, inactive or sluggish,^[5][2] and Lewis & Short note that it is rare and perhaps not found before Augustus or in the Augustan poets.^[2] Columella uses it with ab, slack about one's work,^[2][8] and Tacitus of men grown idle in a long peace.^[2] It is also said of things: Livy writes that the Roman state had never been so sluggish and unwarlike, and Statius has the idle leisure of life and a sluggish step.^[2] Church Latin has it as lazy or slothful.^[9]

Timeline

• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, of people sitting idle at home.^[2][7]
• 1st century AD – Columella, with ab.^[2][8][7]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus, of men idle from a long peace.^[2][7]
• c. 45–96 AD – Statius, of idle leisure.^[2][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Idle, inactive, sluggish.^[5][2][1]
2. With ab: slack about, lazy in.^[5][8]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Lazy, slothful.^[9]

Word family

• indēses

Related words

• dēsideō
• sedeō
• dēsidia

Usage notes

Lewis & Short give as near-synonyms iners, segnis, piger, ignāvus, socors and tardus.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ Appendix Probi, a late antique list of correct and censured Latin word forms ("calida non calda"); ed. H. Keil, Grammatici Latini IV, Leipzig 1864, 197–199.
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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson