Etymologically
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doleo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈdɔ.ɫe.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈdɔː.le.o][1]

Forms

doleō (present infinitive dolēre, perfect active doluī, supine dolitum); second conjugation, no passive[1] The future participle dolitūrus is found in Livy, Virgil, Horace and Ovid.[2] Inscriptions also have deponent forms.[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *dolē- (“to pain, cause pain”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *dolh₁-eie- (“to split”), a causative of *delh₁- (“to chop”): pain would have been felt as being torn apart, and “make someone feel split” would have become “cause pain”.[4][1] The OLD compares, with hesitation, dolō (“to hew”) and Ancient Greek δηλέομαι (dēléomai, “to harm”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,[4] who has tōtus doleō … ita mē iste habuit senex gymnasium, “I ache all over, that old man has used me as a gymnasium”.[3]

Semantic evolution

Dolēre is “to be in pain, ache”, and “to grieve, be distressed” (Plautus: satis iam doluī ex animō, “I have grieved enough at heart”).[3][2][1] With an accusative or a clause it is “to grieve at, lament” (Plautus: haec ego doleō, haec sunt quae mē excruciant, “these things I grieve at, these are what torment me”).[3][1] Of things it is “to cause pain, rankle” (Virgil: an iocī dolent?, “or do the jokes hurt?”).[3]

Church Latin glosses it “grieve, suffer, be sorrowful, hurt”.[5] The noun dolor, pain, comes from it, also from Plautus on.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: tōtus doleō;[3][6] satis iam doluī ex animō.[3][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of pain while varicose veins were cut.[3][6]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil: an iocī dolent?.[3][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To be in pain, ache, hurt.[3][2][1][5]
  2. To grieve, be distressed.[3][1][5]
  3. To grieve at, lament, deplore.[3][1]
  4. To cause pain, rankle.[3]

Word family

  • circumdoleō
  • condoleō
  • condolēscō
  • dēdoleō
  • dolēns
  • dolenter
  • dolentia
  • dolentulus
  • dolitō
  • dolor
  • perdoleō
  • dolidus
  • dolōrōsus
  • dolō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c 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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de