Etymologically
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moles

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈmoː.ɫeːs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈmɔː.les][1]

Forms

mōlēs f (genitive mōlis); third declension[1]

Etymology

De Vaan reconstructs inherited from Proto-Italic *mōlo- (“labour, effort”) beside an s-stem ⟨*mel-e/os-⟩ “trouble”, seen in molestus (“troublesome”), and thinks the noun replaced an old root noun; he rejects the LIV's ⟨*m(e)h₃-l-⟩.[2][1] The OLD and the TLL compare Ancient Greek μῶλος (mōlos, “toil of battle”) and Ancient Greek μόλις (mólis, “hardly”);[3][4] Köbler traces it to Proto-Indo-European *mō- (“to strive, toil”).[5] Wiktionary calls the origin uncertain.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Accius,[2][5] who has mōlem ex profundō saxeam ad caelum ērigit, “he raises a rocky mass from the deep to the sky”, and of a ship tanta mōlēs lābitur fremibunda ex altō, “so huge a thing glides roaring from the deep”.[3]

Semantic evolution

Mōlēs is “a large mass, lump” and a thing of great size, “a monster”, and so a massive structure, a pile, a dam or mole (Cicero of a monument exstrūcta mōlēs opere magnificō, “a pile built with splendid work”).[3][6][1] It is vast size or bulk (Virgil: Polyphemus vastā sē mōle moventem, “moving his huge bulk”), and with a genitive “a huge amount of” (Accius: quantam … mōlem … bellī, “what a mass of war”).[3][1]

Figuratively it is a vast undertaking or heavy responsibility, a danger or burden, “effort, trouble” (Virgil: tantae mōlis erat Rōmānam condere gentem, “so great a labour it was to found the Roman race”), and “might, force”.[3][1] Church Latin glosses it “mass, bulk; trouble”.[7]

Timeline

  • 170–c. 90 BC – Accius: mōlem ex profundō saxeam.[3][5]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of masses of cloud.[3][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero: exstrūcta mōlēs opere magnificō.[3][5]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil: tantae mōlis erat Rōmānam condere gentem.[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A mass, lump, heap.[3][6][1][7]
  2. A huge thing; a massive structure, pile; a dam, pier.[3][1]
  3. Vast size, bulk.[3][1][7]
  4. A huge amount (of).[3]
  5. A vast undertaking, heavy responsibility; a danger, burden.[3][1]
  6. Effort, trouble, difficulty.[3][1][7]
  7. Force, might.[3][1]

Word family

Usage notes

The OLD lists the plural Mōlēs as a personification of the turmoil of war, divinities associated with Mars.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson