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morbidus

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word morbidus

Confidence
Uncertain
Formation
Derivation
First attested
96–55 BC, Lucretius
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European (*mor-bʰo-)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin morbus
Latin morbidus

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈmɔr.bɪ.dʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈmɔr.bi.dus][1]

Forms

morbidus (feminine morbida, neuter morbidum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin morbus (“disease”) + -idus.[2][1][3][4] De Vaan tentatively traces morbus to Proto-Italic *mor-fo- and Proto-Indo-European *mor-bʰo-, with a suffix seen in adjectives describing an appearance, so that the word could mean “looking like death”, from the root of mors (“death”);[5][4] he marks both reconstructions as uncertain.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Lucretius and Varro on;[3] Lucretius has the air becoming disease-bearing, fit morbidus aer.[2]

Semantic evolution

It means diseased, infected or sick: Varro has diseased bees, and Pliny the Elder a diseased body.[2][6] It also means causing disease, unhealthy, as of Lucretius' air and force.[2][6] Lewis & Short call it rare, and only ante-classical and post-Augustan.[6] Döderlein says that aeger is the general word for every kind of illness, while aegrōtus and morbidus indicate bodily illness, morbidus especially of animals.[7] Glossaries explain it as īnsāna and languida.[3] In Church Latin it means depraved or diseased.[8] It continues in Italian morbido,[3] and English morbid (1650s) is from it.[4]

Timeline

  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius, of disease-bearing air.[2][3][9]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro, of diseased bees.[2][9]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder, of a diseased body.[6][9]
  • 1650s – Borrowed into English as morbid.[4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Diseased, infected, sick.[2][6][1]
  2. Causing disease, unhealthy, unwholesome.[2][6][1]
  3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Depraved.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  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 c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry

“Morbidus.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/morbidus. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

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