Etymologically
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tabidus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈtaː.bɪ.dʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈtaː.bi.dus][1]

Forms

tābidus (feminine tābida, neuter tābidum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin tābeō (“to melt, waste away”) + -idus.[2][1] De Vaan traces tābeō to Proto-Italic *tāf-ē- (“to be melting”) and Proto-Indo-European *teh2-bh-eh1- (“to be melting”); the sense to melt developed into to waste away, which underlies all later Latin uses.[3] He gives the cognates Old Irish taïd (“to melt, dissolve”) and Ancient Greek τήκω (tḗkō, “to melt”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it first in Virgil,[4] who speaks in the Aeneid of a wasting plague that suddenly came on limbs, trees and crops (tabida … lues).[2]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short note that it is perhaps not found before the Augustan age.[5] Livy uses it of melting snow, and Ovid of his mind wasting away like water flowing from snow;[2][6] Seneca and Suetonius use it of wasting, emaciated creatures.[2][6] It also means rotting or decaying, of blood, a liver, and a corpse in Suetonius.[2][5] Actively it describes what makes things waste: Ovid's wasting old age that consumes iron and stone, and in Tacitus a slow, wasting poison.[2][6] Augustine uses the comparative of a spider and its web, as things that waste away.[6] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means decaying, melting, consuming, pining, wasting.[7] Medieval writers in Britain use it of people growing weak or in poor health, and of putrefying flesh.[8]

Timeline

  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a wasting plague.[2][4]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of melting snow.[2][4]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a mind wasting away and of wasting old age.[2][4]
  • 354–430 AD – Augustine uses the comparative tabidius.[6][4]
  • Medieval Latin – British writers use it of languishing people and rotting flesh.[8]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Wasting away, becoming emaciated; melting, dissolving.[2][5]
  2. Putrefying, rotting, decaying.[2][5]
  3. Causing wasting, consuming.[2][6]
  4. (Medieval Latin) Languishing, in poor health.[8]

Word family

  • subtabidus
  • tābidōsus
  • tābidulus
  • tabiosus

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b c Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press