laxe
Forms
laxē (comparative laxius, superlative laxissimē)[1]
Etymology
It is from Latin laxus (“loose, wide”) + -ē.[2][3] De Vaan reconstructs that adjective as Proto-Italic *(s)lakso- and Proto-Indo-European *slǵ-so- (“weak, faint”), the root of langueō (“to be faint”), explaining the vowel by a sound rule of Schrijver's.[4]
Earliest recorded meaning
Its earliest citation in the OLD is in Plautus, sin res laxe labat in the sense “on a large scale”.[2]
Semantic evolution
Most uses are spatial: over a wide area (Mela), with room to spare (Ovid, stretching one's limbs at ease on a bed), and at wide intervals (Columella, of sowing seed thinly); laxe habitare was to live in a roomy house.[2] It also means slackly or loosely, as of cloths hung loosely in the historian Sisenna, and, of attention, carelessly: Sallust writes of the hope that the Romans, free from fear, would grow slacker and more licentious.[2] Of time it means without strict limits, as Cicero's laxius proferre diem, to put off a day further.[2][1]
Timeline
- c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, “on a large scale”.[2][3]
- 120–67 BC – Sisenna, “slackly”.[2][3]
- 81–43 BC – Cicero, of loose limits of time.[2][3]
- 1st century AD – Columella, “at wide intervals”.[2][3]
Meanings
Adverb
- Over a large area, widely, spaciously; with room to spare; at wide intervals, sparsely.[2][1]
- On a large scale, liberally, lavishly.[2]
- Slackly, loosely; without attention, carelessly.[2][1]
- Of time: without close limits, at length.[2][1]
Related words
References
- ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
- ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill