paralysis

Forms

paralysis f (genitive paralysis or paralyseōs or paralysios); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek παράλυσις (parálusis, “paralysis, loosening”),^[2][3][4] from παραλύω (paralúō, “to disable, loosen”), made of παρά (pará) and λύω (lúō, “to loosen”).^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Vitruvius is the first the OLD cites, of limbs of the body weakened by paralysis.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Celsus says that the Greeks call a slackness of the eyes paralysis,^[2] and Pliny the Elder names remedies for it.^[3][2] Suetonius uses it of a fatal stroke, apoplexy.^[2] It appears in Petronius and the Vulgate,^[3] and the glossaries explain it as a loosening of the limbs.^[6]

Old French paralisie, through a Vulgar Latin paralysia, gave English palsy;^[5] English borrowed paralysis itself in the 1520s.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of paralysed limbs.^[2][4]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it for a slackness of the eyes.^[2][4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder names remedies for paralysis.^[3][4]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses it for apoplexy.^[2][4]
• 1520s – Borrowed into English as paralysis.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of various forms of paralysis, palsy.^[2][3]
2. A slackness of the eyes (nystagmus).^[2]
3. Apoplexy, a stroke.^[2]

Related words

• English paralysis
• English palsy

Usage notes

Besides the Latin forms, Greek ones are used: genitive paralyseos and accusative paralysin; late manuscripts often write paralis-.^[6]

References

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