mortifer

Forms

mortifer (feminine mortifera, neuter mortiferum); first/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er)^[1] A form mortiferus is also found, as in Celsus and Columella.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin mors (“death”) + -fer (“bearing”), “death-bringing”, from the stem of mors and the root of ferō (“to carry”).^[2][4][1] Wiktionary takes it as a calque of Ancient Greek θανατηφόρος (thanatēphóros, “death-bringing”).^[1] De Vaan traces mors to Proto-Italic *morti- (“death”) and Proto-Indo-European *mr-ti- (“death”), from the verb continued in morior (“to die”); ferō goes back to *bʰer- (“to carry”).^[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Ennius.^[6]

Semantic evolution

It means bringing death, fatal or deadly: Cicero uses it of a deadly cup, a fatal disease and a mortal wound, and Virgil of deadly War on the threshold.^[2][3] Celsus writes of a pain that is severe but not fatal.^[3] Propertius applies it loosely to a funeral couch.^[2] Church Latin glosses it deadly, fatal.^[7]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it.^[6]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius has the nominative mortifer.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a deadly cup and a mortal wound.^[3][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of deadly War.^[3][6]
• 57/46–12 BC – Propertius of a funeral couch.^[2][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Bringing death, fatal, deadly, lethal.^[2][3][7][1]
2. Connected with a death, as a funeral couch.^[2]

Related words

• mors
• ferō
• lētifer

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ 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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson