intermorior

Pronunciation

• Classical: [ɪn.tɛrˈmɔ.ri.ɔr]^[1]
• Ecclesiastical: [in.terˈmɔː.ri.or]^[1]

Forms

intermorior (present infinitive intermorī, perfect active intermortuus sum); third (-iō variant) conjugation, deponent^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin inter- + morior (“to die”).^[2][1] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of the simple verb, which goes back to Proto-Italic *morje- (“to die”) and Proto-Indo-European *mr-ie/o- (“to die”); cognates include Sanskrit म्रियते (mriyáte) and Lithuanian mir̃ti (“to die”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its earliest quotation is in Plautus, who says in the Trinummus that nearly all good morals have died out.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Cato uses it of shoots that will die off.^[2][5] Cicero has the memory of a family almost extinct, the half-dead remnants of Catiline's following and lifeless public meetings,^[2][6] and a letter to him from Bithynicus says that no kindness of his will die away.^[2][5] Livy writes of letting a state perish through remedies too harsh for it, and of a man who collapsed in the middle of an assembly and died soon after.^[2][7]

Celsus uses it of people fainting from loss of blood, who are to be revived with wine;^[5] Ovid calls candour a thing almost dead in his age.^[2][6] Pliny the Elder uses it of plants dying off and of stones that go dark as if dead when touched, and Curtius of a fire dying down.^[2][5] Suetonius has someone lying almost lifeless, and Ulpian uses it of roads that come to a dead end.^[2][5] Festus speaks of words that are dead and buried.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of good morals dying out.^[2][8]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of shoots dying off.^[2][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses the participle of things half dead.^[2][8]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of a man collapsing in an assembly.^[2][8]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of fainting from loss of blood.^[5][8]
• before 223 AD – Ulpian uses it of roads that come to a dead end.^[2][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To die out, perish, become extinct.^[2][5]
2. (of a road) To come to a dead end.^[2][5]
3. To faint, pass out, collapse.^[2][5]
4. (of plants) To die off (between periods of growth).^[2][6]
5. (of fire) To die down.^[2][5]

Related words

• morior
• ēmorior

Usage notes

The past participle intermortuus is often used as an adjective, “half dead, lifeless, faint”.^[5][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
9. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.