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sublabor

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Forms

sublābor (present infinitive sublābī, perfect active sublāpsus sum); third conjugation, deponent[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin sub- (“under”) + lābor1 (“to slip, glide”).[1][2] De Vaan treats the simple verb with labō (“to waver”); he discusses a root meaning “weak” but finds the ablaut ⟨lab-⟩ : ⟨lāb-⟩ hard to explain.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Georges and Conte cite it first from Virgil,[2][4] who writes retrō sublāpsa referrī spēs, of hope slipping back and fading,[4] and prīma luēs ūdō sublāpsa venēnō pertemptat sēnsūs, “the first infection, creeping in with its moist poison, steals over the senses”.[1][4]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short call it poetic and post-Augustan.[5] Besides Virgil's “creep in stealthily”,[1][2] it means to sink or fall down: in Seneca the Elder a body collapses when the breath is cut off,[1][4] and in Seneca unfinished things slip back or give way.[5][2] Seneca also uses it of underground rivers that sink away,[1] and of memory slipping away with long neglect.[2] Pliny the Younger writes of buildings fallen into decay with age, aedificia vetustāte sublāpsa.[5][2]

Timeline

  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of hope slipping back and of poison creeping in.[1][4][6]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of things that sink or slip away.[1][5][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To creep up stealthily, glide in.[1][2][4]
  2. To fall to the ground, collapse.[1][4]
  3. To sink or ebb away; to slip back, fade.[1][4]
  4. To fall into decay.[2][5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de