morigerus

Forms

mōrigerus (feminine mōrigera, neuter mōrigerum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin mōs (“custom, will”) + gerō (“to carry, conduct”) + -us, from the phrase ⟨mōrem gerere⟩ “to humour someone”;^[1][2][3] the OLD gives the second part as -ger.^[4] De Vaan traces mōs to Proto-Italic *mōs- and Proto-Indo-European *m(e)h₁-ōs (“manner”), perhaps from the root *meh₁- (“to measure”), although other reconstructions are possible.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler and de Vaan record it first in Naevius.^[6][5] In Plautus it describes obedience: meo me aequom est morigerum patri, “it is right that I should humour my father”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means compliant, obliging or obedient, used absolutely or with a dative, and Georges notes that it often has a sexual sense, of a woman who yields.^[7][4] Lewis & Short call it ante- and post-classical:^[2] after Plautus, Terence and Afranius, Lucretius uses it of nature that is mōrigera ad frūgēs augendās, “willing to increase the crops”,^[7][8] and of compliant manners,^[4] and it returns in Apuleius, of a mirror image that follows its owner's every nod.^[2][7] Firmicus Maternus writes of wives never compliant to their husbands.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 235–200 BC – Naevius uses it.^[6][5][7]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of obedience to a father.^[2][6]
• 190–159 BC – Terence has tibi mōrigera fuit in rēbus omnibus.^[7][6]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius applies it to nature and to manners.^[7][4][6]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius revives it.^[2][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Compliant, obliging, indulgent, obedient; often of a woman who yields to a man.^[4][2][7]
2. Of actions or manners, compliant, accommodating.^[4]

Related words

• mōrigeror
• mōs
• gerō
• mōrōsus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier