Etymologically
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infatigabilis

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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