moribundus

Forms

moribundus (feminine moribunda, neuter moribundum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin morior (“to die”) + -bundus.^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces morior to Proto-Italic *morje- (“to die”) and Proto-Indo-European *mr̥-ye/o- (“to die”), comparing Sanskrit म्रियते (mriyáte, “dies”) and Old Irish marb (“dead”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus: in the Bacchides someone is unwell and dying.^[4][5][2]

Semantic evolution

It is at the point of death: Cicero reminds the jury that they saw a man lying and dying, and Livy has a man fall down dying.^[6] Statius applies it to a dying voice, and Catullus, disparagingly, perhaps to a half-dead town.^[2] In Virgil it means mortal, of the earthly limbs that hold back the fiery seeds of life.^[2] Servius and Pompeius say that it is not a participle, while Cledonius calls it participial.^[3] English moribund came from it through French in 1721.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a dying man.^[2][4][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a man lying and dying.^[6][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of mortal limbs.^[2][5]
• c. 45–96 AD – Statius of a dying voice.^[2][5]
• 1721 – English borrows it through French as moribund.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. At the point of death, dying, moribund; of a town, decaying.^[2][6][8][1]
2. Subject to death, mortal; fatal.^[2][1]

Related words

• morior
• English moribund

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 i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson