languidus

Forms

languidus (feminine languida, neuter languidum, comparative languidior); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin langueō (“to be faint, weak”) + -idus.^[2][1][3] De Vaan takes the verb from an adjective Proto-Italic *slangu- (“faint, weak”), a nasalised form of the root of laxus (“loose”), perhaps Proto-Indo-European *sl-n-ǵ-u-; he compares Ancient Greek λαγαρός (lagarós, “slack, thin”) and Ancient Greek λαγαίω (lagaíō, “to release”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler give Accius as its first author:^[4][5] in one of his Roman plays sleep soothes weary limbs (artūs languidōs).^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is faint, exhausted or weary, as Cicero's men “faint with wine”, unwell, and of plants wilting; in poetry night and sleep are drowsy (Virgil).^[2][6] It is drooping, slack (Propertius' wrinkle), slow or sluggish in motion, and weak in force, as Lucretius' fainter heat.^[2] Of people it is idle and inert, as old age in Cicero is not, and lacking zeal, spineless, and of efforts feeble.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “infirm, sick, feeble, listless”, and as a noun an invalid.^[7] In medieval Latin it meant ill, and so excused from appearing in court.^[8] English languid (1590s) comes from it, partly through French.^[3]

Timeline

• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius of weary limbs.^[2][4][5]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of weak heat.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of men faint with wine and of slack philosophers.^[2][6][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of drowsy night.^[2][5]
• 1590s – English languid.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Faint, exhausted, weary; unwell, (poetic) drowsy.^[2][1][6]
2. Drooping, slack.^[2]
3. Slow, sluggish; weak, faint.^[2][1]
4. Idle, inert.^[2][1]
5. Listless, apathetic, (of efforts) feeble.^[2][7]
6. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Sick, (as a noun) an invalid.^[7][8]

Word family

• languidulus
• languidē

Related words

• languefaciō
• languēns
• langueō
• languēscō
• languificus
• languor
• laxus
• English languid

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill