Etymologically
Log in

libido

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 18 October 2026 at 21:37. This address is a permanent link to this version.
← Previous version Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [lɪˈbiː.doː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [liˈbiː.do][1]

Forms

libīdō f (genitive libīdinis); third declension[1] The older spelling is lubīdō.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is formed from libet “it is pleasing” with the suffix -īdō, as cupīdō from cupiō.[2][3][5][1] De Vaan thinks the suffix was originally ⟨*-ēdōn⟩, built on the verb stem ⟨*lub-ē-⟩, and was changed under the influence of ⟨cupīdō⟩.[4][1] He derives libet (older ⟨lubet⟩) from Proto-Italic *lufē- (“to desire”), from Proto-Indo-European *lubʰ-eh₁- (“to please”), with ⟨u⟩ unrounded to ⟨i⟩ between ⟨l⟩ and ⟨b⟩.[4] Varro already derived it from ⟨libet⟩.[5]

Cognate with Oscan loufir (“or”), Old Church Slavonic любъ (ljubŭ, “sweet, pleasant”) and Gothic 𐌻𐌹𐌿𐍆𐍃 (liufs, “dear”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus.[4][6] Terence has ut ingeniumst omnium hominum ab labōre prōclīve ad libīdinem, “as all men's nature is to slide from work to pleasure”.[2]

Semantic evolution

Libīdō is a desire, longing or fancy (libīdinem habēre in, “to take pleasure in”), then one's will or whim as a force that overrides reason, “caprice, wilfulness”.[2][3][1] Its narrower sense is sexual desire, “lust, wantonness”.[2][3][1] Döderlein distinguishes cupīdō, desire as an active striving, from cupiditās, desire as a passion or state.[7]

Church Latin glosses it “lust, passion, sexual desire”.[8] English libido was taken over untranslated in 1892, in the English edition of Krafft-Ebing's Psychopathia Sexualis.[9]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Used by Plautus (as lubīdō).[4][6]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence: ab labōre prōclīve ad libīdinem.[2][6]
  • 1892 – English libido.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. desire, longing, wish, fancy.[2][3][1]
  2. Will, pleasure, whim, caprice.[2][1]
  3. Sexual desire, lust, wantonness.[2][3][1][8]

Word family

  • libīdinitās
  • libīdinor
  • libīdinōsus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
  8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com