piger

Forms

piger (feminine pigra, neuter pigrum, comparative pigrior, superlative pigerrimus); first/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *pigro- (“inactive”), beside *pigē- (“to fill with revulsion”), the source of piget (“it irks”).^[2][3][1] The further origin is unknown.^[2] The OLD compares Old Norse feikn (“crime”), Old English fācen (“treachery”) and Sanskrit पिशुन (piśuna-, “slanderous”), and Köbler a root Proto-Indo-European *peyǵ- (“hostile”), but de Vaan thinks the Germanic words belong to another root.^[4][5][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler give Plautus as its first author.^[2][5] In the Mostellaria a worthless master lives with a lazy household (cum pigrā familiā).^[4]

Semantic evolution

It is sluggish or torpid, of animals (Lucretius' bleating flocks), of still, barren country (Horace's “sluggish fields” where no tree is refreshed), and of conditions, as Pacuvius' sluggish old age.^[4] Of things it is slow-moving, motionless, as Ovid's Daphne's foot held fast by roots, or slow to act, as Columella's remedies.^[4] Of people it is lazy, idle, and in Livy unwilling, disinclined to something.^[4][3]

Church Latin glosses it “lazy, slothful”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a lazy household.^[4][5]
• 220–130 BC – Pacuvius of sluggish old age.^[4][5]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of torpid sheep.^[4][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of a people averse to military work.^[3][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Sluggish, torpid, inactive.^[4][1]
2. Slow-moving; motionless, inert; slow to take effect.^[4][1]
3. Lazy, slothful, idle.^[4][1][6]
4. Unwilling, reluctant, averse.^[3][1]

Word family

• impiger
• pigrēdō
• pigreō
• pigror
• pigritia
• pigrō

Related words

• piget

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson