Etymologically
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enitor

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [eːˈniː.tɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [eˈniː.tor][1]

Forms

ēnītor (present infinitive ēnītī, perfect active ēnīsus sum or ēnīxus sum); third conjugation, deponent[1] The perfect participle is usually ēnīxus in the sense “give birth” and ēnīsus in the other senses.[2][3] Sallust uses ēnīsum est as an impersonal passive.[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- (“out”) + nītor (“to lean, strive”).[2][4][1] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of nītor, which he reconstructs as Proto-Italic *kniχw-et- and connects with cōnīveō (“to be tightly closed”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first, in the Pseudolus, of someone who soils his cloak while clambering to his feet.[2][5][6]

Semantic evolution

It is to force one's way out or up, to climb, and also to struggle over mountains, as Tacitus has troops crossing the Pyrenees and the Alps.[2][3] Terence uses it of taking pains for someone, and this sense of striving, often with ut or an infinitive, is common in prose.[2][3] With a mother as subject it means to give birth: Varro writes of a pregnant woman who does not go far from her work and brings back the child she has borne there.[2] De Vaan glosses it “to struggle out, give birth”.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of struggling to one's feet.[2][6]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence of striving on someone's behalf.[2][6]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro of giving birth.[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To force one's way upward, climb; to struggle out; to struggle over or across.[2][3][1]
  2. To take pains, strive, exert oneself.[2][7][1]
  3. Of mothers, to give birth to, bear.[2][7][1]

Word family

  • ēnixim
  • enīxiō
  • ēnixus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson