lassitudo
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Forms
lassitūdō f (genitive lassitūdinis); third declension[1]
Etymology
It is from Latin lassus (“tired”) + -tūdō.[1][2][3] The adjective lassus goes back to Proto-Italic *lassos and Proto-Indo-European *lh₁d-tó- (“tired”), with a d-extension of the root Proto-Indo-European *leh₁- (“to let”).[3] Cognate with Hesychius' Ancient Greek ληδεῖν (lēdeîn, “to be tired”), Albanian lodhem (“to be tired”) and Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐍄𐍃 (lats, “slow”).[3]
Earliest recorded meaning
De Vaan dates it from Plautus,[3] who has “weariness holds all my limbs”.[4]
Semantic evolution
It is tiredness or fatigue of the body, as in Celsus' advice that exercise should end in weariness short of exhaustion;[2][4] Cicero also uses it of mental fatigue.[2][4] Church Latin glosses it “weariness, lassitude”.[5]
Timeline
- c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of weary limbs.[4][3][6]
- 81–43 BC – Cicero of mental fatigue.[2][6]
- 14–37 AD – Celsus of tiredness after exercise.[4][6]
- early 15th century – Borrowed into English as lassitude.[7]
Meanings
Noun
Related words
- lassus
- English lassitude
References
- ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
- ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
- ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
- ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com