dormio

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈdɔr.mi.oː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈdɔr.mi.o]^[1]

Forms

dormiō (present infinitive dormīre, perfect active dormīvī or dormiī, supine dormītum); fourth conjugation, impersonal in the passive^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *dormje/o-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *dr̥m-yé- (“to sleep”).^[2][1] De Vaan notes that the roots *drem- and *dreH- both mean “to run” and “to sleep”, the second sense being found for *drem- only in Latin and Slavic.^[2]

Cognate with Old Church Slavonic дрѣмати (drěmati, “to doze”), Russian дремать (drematʹ, “to doze”), Sanskrit द्राति (drāti, “sleeps”) and Ancient Greek δαρθάνω (darthánō, “to fall asleep”).^[2][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus onwards,^[2][4] who has a character told to go to bed answer dormio “I am asleep, don't shout”.^[5][3]

Semantic evolution

Besides sleeping, it meant to behave as if asleep, to be idle or inactive, as when Cicero attacks a consul who sat “dozing” in a crisis.^[3][5] In poetry it took an object of time, as in Catullus' “one everlasting night must be slept”.^[3][6] It also stood for the sleep of death, especially in Christian epitaphs.^[5][7] Cicero's non omnibus dormio “I do not sleep for everyone” meant “I am not blind to everything”.^[5][6]

It survives as French and Spanish dormir and Italian dormire,^[1] and its derivative dormitorium gave English dormitory, while the participle gave English dormant through French.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for sleeping.^[3][4]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses the future dormibit.^[3][4]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus writes of one everlasting night to be slept.^[3][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of an idle consul.^[3][4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To sleep, be asleep, fall asleep.^[3][5]
2. To sleep through (a period of time).^[3]
3. To be idle, inactive.^[3]
4. To sleep the sleep of death.^[5]

Word family

• addormiō
• condormiō
• dormītiō
• dormītō
• dormītor
• ēdormiō
• indormiō
• obdormiō
• prōdormiō
• redormiō
• dormīscō

Related words

• English dormant
• English dormitory

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com