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relabor

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word relabor

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
70–19 BC, Virgil
Ultimate origin
Latin (re-,labor)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin labor
French labeur
Latin prolabor
Latin sublabor
Latin dilabor
Latin relabor
Latin delabor
Latin perlabor
Latin lapsus
Latin illabor

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [rɛˈɫaː.bɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [reˈlaː.bor][1]

Forms

relābor (present infinitive relābī, perfect active relāpsus sum); third conjugation, deponent[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin re- (“back”) + lābor1 (“to slip, glide”).[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest citations are Virgil's wave that draws back its feet as it slides back,[2][4] and Horace's rivers that could run back up steep mountains.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

It is mostly poetic.[4] It means to slip or slide back from a position: in Ovid of sinking back on a couch, of Eurydice as Orpheus turned his eyes, and of sliding down a rope.[4] Of water it means to ebb or recede, as in Curtius, Lucan and Tacitus of the Tiber flood and the tide.[2][4] Figuratively it is to relapse into a former state, as Horace slips back into the precepts of Aristippus,[2][4] and Seneca uses it of passions and vices that return.[2] Stelten gives “slide back, relapse, return” for Church Latin.[5]

Timeline

  • 70–19 BC – Virgil, of a receding wave.[2][4][6]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace, of rivers flowing back and of relapsing into a doctrine.[2][4][6]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus, of the Tiber flood going down.[2][4][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To slip, slide or sink back; to return.[2][4][1]
  2. Of water, to recede, ebb.[2][4]
  3. To relapse (into), revert to a former state.[2][4][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry

“Relabor.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/relabor. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·