reluctor

Forms

relū̆ctor (present infinitive relū̆ctārī, perfect active relū̆ctātus sum); first conjugation, deponent^[1] An active form reluctō is found in Apuleius and Fulgentius,^[2][3] and Fulgentius also has the spelling relupt-.^[3]

Etymology

It is from Latin re- (“back, against”) + luctor (“to wrestle, struggle”).^[2][3][4] De Vaan explains luctor as a frequentative built on an old past participle meaning “bent”, going back to Proto-Italic *lukto- and Proto-Indo-European *lug-to- (“bent”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first recorded use is in Virgil's Georgics, of an animal that struggles while its nostrils and breath are stopped: “multa reluctanti obstruitur” (“it is blocked as it struggles hard”).^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

It belongs to poetry and to prose after Augustus, as a synonym of repugnō, renītor and adversor.^[7] Besides the physical struggle of people and animals,^[2][7] it was said of things that resist control: Ovid writes of the horns of the moon resisting a spell, and Pliny the Younger of contrary winds.^[2][8][9] Figuratively it meant to resist a course of action or show reluctance: Velleius Paterculus has someone who returned to Italy only after long resistance and unwillingly.^[2] The deponent prevails, but active forms occur in Apuleius, Fulgentius and Gregory of Tours.^[3] In Ecclesiastical Latin it also meant “to hesitate”.^[10] Its present participle reluctāns is the source of English reluctant.^[4]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of an animal struggling.^[2][6]
• 43 BC–AD 18 – Ovid uses it of the moon resisting a spell.^[2][6]
• c. 20 BC–AD 30 – Velleius Paterculus uses it of reluctance to take a course of action.^[2][6]
• AD 98–115 – Tacitus describes the traces of a woman who resisted and was pushed.^[7][6]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius has the active form reluctō.^[2][3][6]
• 1660s – English takes reluctant from its present participle.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To struggle against a physical force or an opponent, resist.^[2][7]
2. Of things: to offer resistance to control or movement.^[2][8]
3. (figurative) To struggle against a course of action, be reluctant.^[2][7]
4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To hesitate.^[10]

Related words

• luctātiō
• ēluctor
• obluctor
• English reluctant

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 l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ 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 e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
10. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson