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lapso

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈɫaːp.soː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈlap.so][1]

Forms

lāpsō (present infinitive lāpsāre, perfect active lāpsāvī, supine lāpsātum); first conjugation, impersonal in the passive[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin lābor1 (“to slip, glide”), with the frequentative suffix -tō;[2] Wiktionary derives it from the perfect participle lāpsus.[1] According to the TLL, the deponent verb first gave a deponent frequentative lāpsor, whose present participle is the form Virgil uses, and Statius drew the active verb from that participle.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Virgil (70–19 BC),[4] as a present participle, of someone slipping in a son's blood (in multo lapsantem sanguine nati).[5][3]

Semantic evolution

The finite active verb is first used by Statius, of a fighter tottering and falling from a wound.[3][5][6] Tacitus has horses slipping in their own blood and on the slippery ground of marshes,[5][6] Silius Italicus a tottering step,[5] Florus a man reeling from drunkenness and dizziness,[6] and Ammianus Marcellinus slipping feet.[5][6] Gellius uses it figuratively of words that are babbled out.[5][6] Glossaries explain it with forms of labi.[3] In manuscripts it is sometimes written with -bs- and confused with lasso.[3]

Timeline

  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses the participle lapsans of someone slipping in blood.[5][3][4]
  • c. 45–96 AD – Statius uses the finite active verb, of falling.[3][6][4]
  • 25–101 AD – Silius Italicus uses it of a tottering step.[5][4]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of horses slipping in blood and mud.[5][4]
  • c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it of babbled words.[5][6][4]
  • c. 390 AD – Ammianus Marcellinus uses it of slipping feet.[5][6][4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To lose one's footing, slip, stumble, totter.[2][5][6]
  2. To totter and fall.[5][6]
  3. (figurative) Of words, to be babbled out.[5][6]

Usage notes

The deponent lāpsor is recorded by the grammarian Diomedes and in glossaries, but no text uses it.[3][6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn