Etymologically
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taedium

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈtae̯.di.ũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈtɛː.di.um][1]

Forms

taedium n (genitive taediī or taedī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is formed from taedet (“it wearies, disgusts”) with the suffix -ium.[2][1] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *taidē- for the verb, and *taidro- for the related adjective taeter (“foul”), but finds no good etymology for the root.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives the Bellum Alexandrinum and Sallust as its first sources,[4] the first of the crowd “worn out with weariness of the girl”, the second of weariness of adversity.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It is weariness of something, with the genitive, as Livy's “weariness of war”, and without it boredom or ennui, as Livy's enemies who hoped to wear out the foe by tedium.[2][5] It is also aversion or disgust, as Pliny's mother animals who love their young but loathe water more, and by extension a disagreeable quality or a nuisance, as in Celsus.[2] Lewis and Short note that it is rare before the Augustan period and perhaps absent from Cicero and Caesar.[5]

In Church Latin it is weariness or heaviness, and in medieval Latin also sorrow, grief or mourning, and illness.[6][7]

Timeline

  • 86–34 BC – Sallust of weariness of adversity.[5][4]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of weariness of war.[5][2][4]
  • 14–37 AD – Celsus of disagreeable symptoms.[2][4]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of disgust.[2][4]
  • 1660s – Borrowed into English as tedium.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Weariness (of), boredom, ennui.[2][1][5]
  2. Disgust, aversion, loathing; an object of disgust.[2][1]
  3. A disagreeable quality; a nuisance.[2]
  4. (Medieval Latin) Sorrow, grief, mourning; illness.[7][1]

Word family

  • taedio
  • taediōsus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ 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. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com