Etymologically
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pigritia

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [pɪˈɡrɪ.ti.a][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [piˈɡrit.t͡si.a][1]

Forms

pigritia f (genitive pigritiae); first declension[1] There is also a fifth-declension form pigritiēs.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin piger (“sluggish”) + -itia.[2][3][1] De Vaan finds no root etymology for the adjective.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus,[4][5] whose Mercator tells someone to drive away weariness and not give way to sluggishness.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is lack of energy, sluggishness, in living beings or things,[2] and laziness:[2][6] Cicero defines it as fear of the labour to come, and tells a friend not to think it laziness that he does not write in his own hand.[2][6] Livy uses it of a failure to act, asking what ignorance of war and what sloth this is.[2] Livy also has a fifth-declension accusative pigritiem.[3] Döderlein ranks it with sēgnitia, dēsidia and sōcordia as faults of too easy a temperament, pigritia being a dislike of all movement.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of sluggishness.[2][4][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of laziness.[2][6]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of sloth in war.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Lack of energy, sluggishness.[2][6][1]
  2. Laziness, sloth, indolence; disinclination to act.[2][6][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper