dolor

Forms

dolor m (genitive dolōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin doleō + -or, from the verb “to be in pain”.^[2][3][1] De Vaan traces the verb to Proto-Italic *dolē- (“to pain, cause pain”), from a causative Proto-Indo-European *dolh₁-éye- (“to make split”) of the root *delh₁- (“to chop, split”), pain being felt as being torn apart; in Old Latin the sufferer is still put in the dative.^[3][4]

Cassiodorus fancifully derived it from ⟨dominābilis⟩ or ⟨domābilis⟩ and ⟨horror⟩.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on:^[3][6] puellam peperit … sine dolōribus, “she bore a girl without pains”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Dolor is physical pain, then distress of mind, anguish and grief, and resentment or indignation.^[2][1] In rhetoric it is the pathos of a speech that rouses sad emotions (āctiō plēna dolōris).^[2] The exclamation prō dolor means “alas!”.^[1]

In Church Latin it is sorrow and pain.^[7] English dol, a unit of intensity of pain coined in 1947, is taken from it.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – First found in Plautus, of labour pains.^[2][3][6]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of grief: quantum corde capiō dolōrem.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero: āctiō … plēna dolōris, plēna vēritātis.^[2][6]
• 1947 – English dol, a unit of pain intensity.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Physical pain, ache.^[2][8]
2. Distress, anguish, grief.^[2][1]
3. resentment, indignation.^[2][1]
4. (rhetoric) pathos.^[2]
5. prō dolor, alas!^[1]

Word family

• dolōrōsus
• indolorius
• cordolium

Related words

• dolēns
• dolenter
• doleō
• English dol

Usage notes

Döderlein describes dolor as the inward feeling of grief, the opposite of gaudium, while tristitia, maeror and lūctus denote its outward expression.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper