indormio

Forms

indormiō (present infinitive indormīre, perfect active indormīvī, supine indormītum); fourth conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- + dormiō (“to sleep”).^[2][3][1] dormiō goes back to Proto-Italic *dormje/o- and Proto-Indo-European *drm-i̯e- (“to sleep”),^[4] and is cognate with Ancient Greek δαρθάνω (darthánō, “to fall asleep”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Cicero on,^[3][5] who uses it figuratively of someone asleep over a matter: in the Philippics he asks whether torches are needed to wake “you” as you sleep over so great a cause (tē tantae causae indormientem).^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

Cicero also confesses to his brother that he has long been asleep over the task of cultivating a man,^[3][7] and Pliny the Younger speaks of being roused from long idleness.^[3][7] In the literal sense Horace has someone sleeping on sacks heaped up all around (congestīs undique saccīs indormīs),^[2][6] and Petronius someone who fell asleep in another's embrace.^[3][6] Curtius uses it of sleeping unaware of one's troubles, and a verse inscription says that fear never slept in a certain Heliades.^[3]

In Vegetius' veterinary writings it meant to go numb, of a horse's jaw or shoulder.^[3][7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of sleeping over an important matter.^[3][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of sleeping on heaped-up sacks.^[2][5]
• before 66 AD – Petronius uses it of falling asleep in an embrace.^[3][5]
• 1st century AD – Curtius uses it of sleeping unaware of one's troubles.^[3][5]
• c. 400 AD – Vegetius uses it of a horse's jaw going numb.^[3][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To sleep in or on something; to fall asleep over it.^[2][8][9]
2. (figurative) To be negligent or careless about something, to sleep over it.^[2][7][3]
3. (veterinary) To go numb.^[3][7]

Related words

• dormiō

Usage notes

The reading indormiat in Virgil's Georgics (2.506) is a false one for dormiat.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn