languor

Forms

languor m (genitive languōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin langueō (“to be faint, weary”) + -or.^[2][3][1] De Vaan takes the basis to be an adjective ⟨*lang-u(o)-⟩ faint, a nasalized variant of the root of laxus (“loose”), from Proto-Italic *(s)lā̆ng-u- and perhaps Proto-Indo-European *sl-n-ǵ-u- (“weak, faint”).^[4] Cognate with Ancient Greek λαγαρός (lagarós, “slack, thin”) and Old English slæc (“weak”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus,^[5] whose Asinaria speaks of a man whose toughness often wore out eight strong lictors.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

It is faintness, exhaustion or weariness, as Terence's “this walk has tired me”, and specifically sickness, as Horace's watery languor in a pale body.^[2][6] Of the sea it is stillness, as in Seneca, and of gems a dullness of colour in Pliny the Elder.^[2] Cicero uses it of inactivity and sloth, as minds softened by shade, pleasures, leisure and idleness, and of apathy and of the feeble style of the older writers.^[2]

In Church Latin it is feebleness, sickness and infirmity.^[7] In medieval Latin it is illness that excuses a party from appearing in court, and moral weakness or sin.^[8] English borrowed languor about 1300, first in the senses disease and distress.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of exhaustion.^[2][5]
• 190–159 BC – Terence of a tiring walk.^[6][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of sloth and apathy.^[2][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of sickness.^[2][5]
• c. 1300 – Borrowed into English as languor.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. Faintness, exhaustion, lassitude, weariness; sickness.^[2][6][7][1]
2. Stillness of the sea; dullness of colour.^[2]
3. Inactivity, idleness, sloth.^[2][6]
4. Lack of keenness, apathy; feebleness of style.^[2][1]
5. (Medieval Latin) Illness that excuses absence from court.^[8]
6. (Medieval Latin) Moral weakness, sin.^[8]

Related words

• langueō
• languidus
• English languor

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 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 d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com