morsus

Forms

morsus m (genitive morsūs); fourth declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from mordeō (“to bite”) with the noun suffix -tus.^[2][3][1] De Vaan takes ⟨mordeō⟩ from Proto-Italic *mordeje-, an iterative present Proto-Indo-European *h₂mord-(e)ye- (“to crush, bite”), cognate with Sanskrit मर्दित (marditá-, “crushed”) and Ancient Greek ἀμέρδω (amérdō, “to deprive of”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Cato as its first author,^[5] who prescribes pig dung for the wound if a snake has bitten an ox;^[2] Accius has the “viper's bite” whose poison fills the veins.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is a bite, of an animal or of a person eating, as Cicero's ears of grain protected against the bites of small birds, and also the wound made by a bite;^[2][6] Statius uses the plural for the jaws.^[2][6] From biting it is a grip with the teeth and the grip of a hook or anchor, as Virgil's ships held without the “bite” of the anchor's fluke.^[2][1]

It is the corrosive action of a poison, as Cicero's robe of Deianira that tears the flesh, the pungency of food such as cress, and a sharp pain or pang, also of the mind, as Cicero's “the bites of lost liberty are sharper”.^[2] Horace uses it of the gnawing of envy.^[2] Church Latin glosses it “bite, morsel, biting”, and in medieval Latin it is also a clasp or buckle.^[7][8]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato of a snakebite.^[2][5]
• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius of a viper's bite.^[2][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of the grip of an anchor.^[2][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of the gnawing of envy.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bite; a wound made by biting;^[2][6][1] (plural) the jaws.^[2][6][1]
2. A grip with the teeth; the grip of a hook or anchor.^[2][1]
3. Corrosive action; pungency (of food).^[2][1]
4. A sharp pain, pang; mental pain; the gnawing of envy.^[2][1]
5. (Medieval Latin) A clasp, buckle.^[8]

Word family

• morsiuncula
• morsicō

Related words

• mordeō
• mordāx
• mōrsum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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 d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill