obsoletus

Forms

obsolētus (feminine obsolēta, neuter obsolētum, comparative obsolētior, adverb obsolētē); first/second-declension participle^[1]

Etymology

It is the participle from Latin obsolēscō (“to wear out, fall into disuse”), used as an adjective.^[2][1] Wiktionary analyses that verb as obs- and olēscō (“to grow”),^[1] while Etymonline takes it as ob- with an extended form of soleō (“to be accustomed”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler finds it first in Cicero,^[4] who in the speeches on the agrarian law describes a man in rather shabby clothing, and in the Pro Quinctio calls a string of insults common and worn out.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Of things it is worn out by age or use, and of people dressed in worn clothes, as Nepos and Livy use it;^[2] Horace has a shabby, neglected house.^[2] From there it means soiled or dingy, as Seneca's hand stained with blood and Suetonius' cloak of a dingy colour.^[2] Of words and things it is hackneyed or commonplace: Cicero has a style a little too worn, and Nepos says that the honours of the Roman people had become lavish and cheap.^[2] Seneca uses it of names fallen into oblivion.^[2] Stelten gives “obsolete, worn out, cast off” for Church Latin.^[5] English obsolete comes from it and dates from the 1570s.^[3]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of shabby clothing and of hackneyed words.^[2][4]
• c. 100–24 BC – Nepos, of honours grown cheap.^[2][4]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca, of blood-stained hands and of forgotten names.^[2][4]
• 1570s – Borrowed into English as obsolete.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Worn out by age or use, dilapidated; of people, shabby, in worn clothes.^[2][1][5]
2. Soiled, dirty; of colour, dingy.^[2]
3. Of language and the like, hackneyed, commonplace.^[2][1]
4. Fallen into disregard or oblivion; out of date.^[2][1]

Related words

• obsolēscō
• soleō
• exolēscō
• English obsolete

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson