misellus

Forms

misellus (feminine misella, neuter misellum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin miser (“wretched”) + -lus, a diminutive.^[1][2] De Vaan traces miser to Proto-Italic *misro- and, with a question mark, Proto-Indo-European *mh2isro-; he notes a possible link with maereō (“to grieve”), but finds no acceptable Indo-European pedigree.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it from Naevius.^[4] The TLL finds it from Plautus on, above all in writers of a familiar style,^[2] and Plautus has a speaker reduced to a wretched little cloak: ad hoc misellum pallium.^[1]

Semantic evolution

It is a diminutive of feeling, used in pity or fondness, of people, children and small animals, often in addressing someone or of the speaker.^[2] Lucilius and Cicero use it of wretched people,^[1] and Catullus addresses the dead sparrow, o miselle passer.^[1][5] Epitaphs use it of the dead,^[1] and Isidore of Seville distinguishes miser, said of the living, from misellus, said of the dead.^[2] Of things it is meagre or paltry, as a wretched hundred-as sum in Lucilius and a paltry hope in Lucretius.^[1] Quintilian says misellus and pauperculus are to be spoken in a low, subdued voice.^[2]

Medieval Latin uses misellus and misella for a leper,^[6] and the TLL lists Old Italian misello, Old French mesel and Old Spanish mesiello as its descendants.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of a wretched little cloak.^[1][2][4]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus, of a dead sparrow.^[1][5][4]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville, of the dead.^[2][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Poor, wretched, pitiable (as a term of pity or affection).^[1][5][2]
2. (as a noun) A wretch; one who has died.^[5][2]
3. Meagre, mean, paltry.^[1]
4. (Medieval Latin) A leper.^[6]

Related words

• miser
• miserulus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill