Etymologically
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onerosus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɔ.nɛˈroː.sʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [o.neˈrɔː.s̬us][1]

Forms

onerōsus (feminine onerōsa, neuter onerōsum); first/second-declension adjective[1] Manuscripts often spell it hon-.[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin onus (“load, burden”) + -ōsus.[3][1][4] De Vaan traces onus to Proto-Italic *ones- and Proto-Indo-European *h₃en-os (“load”), comparing Sanskrit अनस् (ánas-, “heavy cart”).[5] He finds the link with Hittite anii̯e/a-zi (“to work, carry out”) semantically not compelling.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first quotation is in Virgil's Aeneid, where the darkness of the branches and the heavy booty hinder Euryalus.[3][4]

Semantic evolution

It is oppressively heavy, often with a dative of the person burdened, and without a bad sense simply heavy, as in Virgil of a lion's hide heavy with shaggy hair.[3] Figuratively it is burdensome or tiresome: in Ovid one lot is more burdensome than the other.[3] Lewis & Short find it in poetry and in prose after Augustus, and Pliny the Elder uses it of food that is hard to digest.[6] English onerous was borrowed in the late 14th century from Old French and directly from Latin.[7]

Timeline

  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of heavy booty.[3][4]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of a more burdensome lot.[3][4]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of food hard to digest.[6][4]
  • late 14th century – English onerous.[7]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Oppressively heavy; heavy, weighty.[3][6][1]
  2. Burdensome, onerous, tiresome;[3][1] of food, hard to digest.[6]

Word family

  • onerositas

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com