remoror

Forms

remoror (present infinitive remorārī, perfect active remorātus sum); first conjugation, deponent^[1] The deponent prevails, but active forms remorō, -āre also occur.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin re- + moror (“to delay”).^[3][1][2] De Vaan takes moror either as a verb made from mora “delay” or as an old iterative; he traces mora to Proto-Italic *morH-ā- (“delay”) and Proto-Indo-European *morh₂-, comparing Old Irish maraid (“lasts, remains”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus asks why those dawdlers are staying so long inside.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

Without an object it is to wait, linger or dally, rarely so: Lucretius and Livy have it of staying in a place.^[3][5] With an object it is to delay a person, hold up or keep waiting, which is frequent and classical: in Plautus a timber merchant may hold up a ship, and in Terence someone curses whoever has delayed him today.^[3][5] It is also to check something moving, as Lucretius' winds blowing against the river, and to put off an event: Cicero asks whether death and punishment were put off for a single day.^[3][5] Sallust says night and the plunder of the camp kept the enemy from using their victory.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of lingering and of holding someone up.^[3][5][6]
• 190–159 BC – Terence of delaying a person.^[3][5][6]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of winds holding back a river.^[3][5][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a punishment put off.^[5][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To wait, linger, tarry, dally.^[3][5][1]
2. (transitive) To delay, hold up, keep waiting; to check (something moving); to put off (an event).^[3][5][1]

Word family

• remorāmen
• remorātiō
• remorator
• remoratrix

Related words

• moror
• mora

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ 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 c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de