Etymologically
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sollicitudo

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Forms

sollicitūdō f (genitive sollicitūdinis); third declension[1] It is also spelled sōlicitūdō.[2]

Etymology

It is formed from sollicitus (“troubled, anxious”) with the suffix -tūdō, shortened by haplology.[3][1] De Vaan explains ⟨sollicitus⟩ as “wholly stirred”, from sollus (“whole”) and ⟨citus⟩, the participle of cieō (“to set in motion”).[4] He traces ⟨sollus⟩ to Proto-Italic *solno- (“whole”) and Proto-Indo-European *sol(h₂)-no-, cognate with Oscan sullus (“all”), Welsh holl (“all”) and Old Irish slán (“whole, sound”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus, Miles gloriosus: eam pudet mē tibi in senectā obicere sollicitūdinem, “I am ashamed to cause you that worry in my old age”.[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Sollicitūdō is disquiet of mind, anxiety, uneasiness, with a genitive of what causes it (sollicitūdō perīculōrum), and a particular worry: Terence urges someone to drop a false anxiety that torments him.[3] It also means watchful concern for someone, solicitude (Curtius), and anxious care or painstakingness in a task: Quintilian wonders whether carelessness or over-anxious care is worse in prose rhythm.[3] Lewis & Short quote a definition of it as aegritūdō cum cōgitātiōne, “distress joined with brooding”.[2]

Döderlein groups cūra, sollicitūdō and angor as disturbances of mind about a coming evil.[5] In Late Latin it also meant responsibility,[1] and in Church and medieval Latin it is care and attention as well as worry.[6][7] English solicitude (early 15th century) came from Old French and directly from Latin.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a worry in old age.[3][9]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence of a false anxiety.[3][9]
  • c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian of painstaking care.[3][9]
  • early 15th century – English solicitude.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. anxiety, worry, uneasiness; a particular worry.[3][1][6]
  2. Watchful concern, solicitude.[3][1]
  3. Anxious care, painstakingness.[3][1]
  4. (Late Latin) responsibility.[1]
  5. (Medieval Latin) Care, attention.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  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. ^ 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. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  9. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de