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infatigabilis

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word infatigabilis

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1st century AD, Valerius Maximus
Ultimate origin
Latin fatīgō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin fatigo
French fatiguer
Latin infatigabilis
From the same root
Latin defatigo ← fatigo
Latin fatigatio ← fatigo

Forms

infatīgābilis (neuter infatīgābile); third-declension two-termination adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“not”) + fatīgō (“to tire”) + -bilis.[1] The TLL compares fatīgābilis.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Valerius Maximus on,[2][3] who writes that Hypsicratea followed Mithridates tireless in mind and body alike.[2]

Semantic evolution

The word is post-Augustan:[4] Seneca applies it to virtue and the mind, and Pliny the Elder to a course.[4][2] Christian writers used it of God, his hands and the arm of his help, and even of the devil, tireless in evil;[2] an adverb infatigābiliter appears in Augustine.[4] The glossaries render it with Greek áskyltos, akopíatos and akatapónētos.[5]

Medieval Latin kept it for people who cannot be tired out, and for what is constant or unbroken: in Liudger's life of Gregory, Gregory stays with his master Boniface as a tireless helper.[6]

Timeline

  • 1st century AD – Valerius Maximus uses it of tireless devotion in mind and body.[2][3]
  • 4 BC–AD 65 – Seneca applies it to virtue.[4][3]
  • AD 23/24–79 – Pliny the Elder uses it.[4][3]
  • c. 160–220 – Tertullian speaks of the tireless hands of God.[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Indefatigable, tireless.[1][4][2]
  2. (Medieval Latin) Constant, unceasing.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  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 c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Goetz, Georg (1888–1923), Corpus glossariorum Latinorum, Leipzig: Teubner; vols. VI–VII Thesaurus glossarum emendatarum, digital ed. CGLO, Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  6. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
Cite this entry

“Infatigabilis.” Etymologically, 24 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/infatigabilis. Accessed 24 Oct. 2026.

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