Etymologically
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reluctor

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [rɛˈɫuːk.tɔr], [rɛˈɫʊk.tɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [reˈluk.tor][1]

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]

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