Etymologically
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moribundus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [mɔ.rɪˈbʊn.dʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [mo.riˈbun.dus][1]

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]

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