Etymologically
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fessus

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈfɛs.sʊs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈfɛs.sus][1]

Forms

fessus (feminine fessa, neuter fessum, comparative fessior, superlative fessissimus); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is probably in origin a participle of fatīscō (“to split; to grow weary”), with its vowel taken from dēfessus (“worn out”) and kept apart from fassus, the participle of fateor (“to admit”).[2][3] De Vaan explains that ⟨*dē-fat-to-⟩ regularly gave dēfessus, from which the simple adjective was later detached; behind the family he sets a noun ⟨*fatis⟩ “exhaustion”, kept in affatim (“sufficiently”).[4] He finds Walde's root Proto-Indo-European *dʰH- (“to vanish”) gratuitous and knows no cogent further etymology,[4] though Wiktionary and Köbler cite it.[1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Varro,[4] who writes that bees hold up their king when he is fessus.[2] Köbler first records it in Cicero.[5]

Semantic evolution

Fessus is “tired out, weary, exhausted”, of people and beasts, of strength, and of travellers, ships and spent winds at the end of their course (Ovid).[2][6][1] It is “weakened” by wounds, disease or hardship (Cicero: fessum inediā fluctibusque, “worn out by hunger and the waves”), “feeble” with age, “exhausted” by war (Cicero of the Veientes), and of things “worn out”.[2][1] It is also “weary in mind, dispirited” (Livy: fessus metū ac labōre mīles), and “sick of” something (Cicero: plōrandō fessus sum, “I am tired of weeping”).[2]

Church Latin glosses it “weary”.[7]

Timeline

  • 116–27 BC – Varro of the weary king bee.[2][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero: plōrandō fessus sum.[2][5]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy: fessus metū ac labōre mīles.[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. tired, weary, exhausted.[2][6][1][7]
  2. Weary with travel; spent.[2]
  3. Weakened, feeble (by wounds, illness or age); worn out.[2][1]
  4. Weary in mind, dispirited; sick (of).[2]

Word family

  • fessulus

References

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