indolens

Forms

indolēns (genitive indolentis); third-declension one-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin in-² (“not”) + dolēns (“feeling pain”),^[1][2] the present participle of doleō (“to feel pain”).^[3][4] Jerome used it to render the participle Ancient Greek ἀπηλγηκώς (apēlgēkṓs) word for word.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL and Georges know it only from Jerome's commentary on the Letter to the Ephesians,^[2][5] where he proposes indolentes or indolorii as a word-for-word rendering of the Greek.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It remained a rare Late Latin word meaning “free from pain, not feeling pain”.^[1][2] Its Romance and English descendants are learned borrowings: French indolent, Italian and Spanish indolente.^[1] English indolent (1660s) first meant “causing no pain”; the sense “lazy, slothful” followed in 1710, perhaps developed in French.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 383–420 AD – Jerome uses it in his commentary on Ephesians.^[2][3]
• 1660s – English borrows it as indolent, “causing no pain”.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (Late Latin) Not feeling pain, insensible to suffering.^[2][5][4]

Related words

• indolentia
• English indolent

Usage notes

The noun indolentia “freedom from pain” is older: the TLL says Cicero formed it after a Greek model.^[2] The OLD analyses it as in-² with the participle of doleō and the suffix -ia.^[7]

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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
5. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press