gemitus

Forms

gemitus m (genitive gemitūs); fourth declension^[1] Plautus has the archaic genitive gemitī.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin gemō (“to groan”) + -tus, an action noun.^[2][1][4] The origin of gemō is uncertain: most scholars connected it with Ancient Greek γέμω (gémō, “to be full”), which de Vaan finds hard to accept for the meaning; he reports Vine's comparison with γέγωνα (gégōna, “to shout so as to be heard”) and a Tocharian A verb “to call”, with ⟨-m-⟩ taken over from verbs such as fremō and tremō.^[5] Cassiodorus explained it as a “doubled grief”, as if from geminō.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler first records it in Ennius.^[6] Plautus has tantum gemitī et malī maestitiaeque, “so much groaning, misery and sorrow”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Gemitus is a groan or moan, the inarticulate sound of pain or grief, and lamentation in general.^[2][3][1] It is also a low, hollow sound made by things: in Virgil the hollow wooden horse gives out a groan when the spear strikes it, and elsewhere the earth groans.^[2]

Döderlein contrasts suspīrāre, the deep sigh that an afflicted heart forces out, with gemere, groaning to give vent to pain.^[7] Church Latin glosses it “groan, moan, sigh, sorrow”.^[8]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it.^[6]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: tantum gemitī.^[2][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of the groan of the wooden horse.^[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A groan, moan; lamentation.^[2][3][1][8]
2. Grief, sorrow.^[1][8]
3. A low, hollow sound (of things); a roar.^[2][1]

Related words

• gemō
• ingemō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ 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. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
8. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson