labefacio

Forms

labefaciō (present infinitive labefacere, perfect active labefēcī, supine labefactum); third (-iō variant) conjugation, suppletive^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin labō (“to totter, waver”) + faciō (“to make”), a compound meaning “to make totter”.^[2][3][1] The passive is supplied by ⟨labefīō⟩, ⟨labefierī⟩.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Terence, where a character complains that someone loosened all his teeth: omnīs dentīs labefēcit mihi.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

From making something physically unsteady, such as part of a wall,^[4] the verb passed to figurative uses: to undermine power or authority and to weaken a person's resolve or loyalty.^[2] L&S notes that Cicero uses only the participle labefactus.^[4] The frequentative labefactō is derived from it.^[1]

Ecclesiastical Latin uses it for “to shake, loosen, weaken”.^[6]

Timeline

• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of loosened teeth.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses the participle of power and resolve that are shaken.^[2][4][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make unsteady, cause to totter, loosen, shake.^[2][4]
2. (figurative) To undermine the power or authority of; to ruin.^[2][1]
3. (figurative) To make someone waver in resolve or loyalty.^[2][4]

Word family

• illabefactus
• labefactō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson