morbosus

Forms

morbōsus (feminine morbōsa, neuter morbōsum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin morbus (“disease”) + -ōsus.^[2][3][1] De Vaan lists it, from Cato on, among the derivatives of ⟨morbus⟩, which he reconstructs as *mor-fo- and Proto-Indo-European *mor-bho-, both with a question mark.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cato is the first to use it: among the things a farmer should sell off he names the old slave and the sickly slave (servum senem, servum morbosum).^[2][3][4]

Semantic evolution

The plain sense, sickly or diseased, is found, according to L&S, only before and after the Classical period, and it was used especially in legal contracts.^[2][5] Varro has it of livestock, and Labeo, quoted by Gellius, of a horse.^[5] Festus (in Paul's epitome) explains it as a man affected by some disease.^[5][6]

Catullus applied it to sexual appetite, “morbidly lustful”, and with in it came to mean mad about something.^[2][5] The Priapea have a comparative morbosior.^[6]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato advises selling the sickly slave.^[2][4]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of sick livestock.^[5][4]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it of lust.^[2][4]
• 1st century AD – The Priapea have the comparative morbosior.^[6][4]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius quotes Labeo on a diseased horse.^[5][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Sickly, diseased, ailing (often of slaves and animals in contracts of sale).^[2][5]
2. Morbidly lustful;^[2][5] (with in + accusative) mad about.^[2][5]

Word family

• morbositas

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 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 e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften