torpesco

Forms

torpēscō (present infinitive torpēscere, perfect active torpuī); third conjugation, no passive, no supine stem^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin torpeō (“to be numb”) + -scō,^[2][1][3] an inchoative verb.^[3] De Vaan traces torpeō to Proto-Italic *torp-ē- (“to be stiff”) and Proto-Indo-European *trp-eh₁- (“to be stiff”).^[4] Cognate with Lithuanian tir̃pti (“to coagulate, grow stiff”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest example in the OLD is in Sallust, who writes that hands and spirit should not grow sluggish through idleness.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Sallust, Livy, Seneca and Tacitus use it of becoming slothful or inactive.^[2] The physical sense, “to grow numb”, appears in Ovid, of cheeks numbed by grief, in Seneca, of limbs numbed by cold, and in Pliny the Elder, who says scorpions grow numb at the touch of aconite.^[2][5]

Pliny also uses it of people made drowsy by a drink, and Seneca and Lucan of things that become still: air in endless night, and the world that stood still when a chant was heard.^[2]

Timeline

• 86–34 BC – Sallust uses it of hands and spirit growing idle.^[2]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of arms made idle.^[2][5]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of cheeks numbed by grief.^[2]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of scorpions numbed by aconite.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To grow numb, become paralysed.^[2][3]
2. To become torpid or drowsy; of things, to become still or inert.^[2]
3. To become slothful or inactive.^[2][6]

Word family

• obtorpēscō
• retorpesco
• extorpesco

Related words

• torpor

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 c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn