Etymologically
Log in

indolesco

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 11:19. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪn.dɔˈɫeːs.koː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [in.doˈlɛs.ko][1]

Forms

indolēscō (present infinitive indolēscere, perfect active indoluī); third conjugation, no supine stem[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- + doleō (“to feel pain”) + -scō.[2][3] Wiktionary also analyses it as ⟨in-⟩ with dolēscō.[1] De Vaan traces doleō to Proto-Italic *dolē- (“to cause pain”) and Proto-Indo-European *dolh1-eie- (“to split”), a causative of the root for “chop”: pain was felt as being torn apart.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Cicero, Ovid and Celsus on.[3] In the Philippics Cicero asks who there was who did not grieve to learn it so late: quis … qui non indoluerit, tam sero se … cognoscere?.[5]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short say it is mostly post-Augustan.[5] Of the body it is to hurt or ache: Celsus has a spot that aches slightly when touched, and Pliny the Elder aching eyes.[2][5] Of the mind it is to grieve or be distressed, very often in Ovid, who constructs it with an infinitive, an ablative or an accusative, as id ipsum indoluit Iuno, “Juno was pained at that very thing”.[2][5] Tacitus has it of being pained that young men were made equal to one's own old age.[5] Justin uses it with an accusative, to feel pain at people's touch.[5] Sidonius and Minucius Felix have a gerundive.[5]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, of grief.[5][3][6]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid, of grief and distress.[2][5][6]
  • 14–37 AD – Celsus, of a painful spot.[2][6]
  • c. 431–486 AD – Sidonius has a gerundive.[5][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. Of parts of the body, to feel pain, hurt, ache.[2][5][1]
  2. To feel grief, be distressed; with an object, to grieve at, be troubled by.[2][5][1]

References

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