tremor

Forms

tremor m (genitive tremōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin tremō (“to tremble”) + -or.^[1][2][3] The verb tremō goes back to Proto-Indo-European *trem- (“to tremble”).^[3] Cognate with Ancient Greek τρέμω (trémō, “to tremble”) and Lithuanian trìmti (“to tremble”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[3] whose shipwrecked old man in the Rudens chatters with cold.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is trembling or shuddering, from fear, as in Cicero's “pallor and trembling follow terror”, or from cold or illness.^[2][4] Lucretius uses it of the quivering of fires, and later it is any quaking, as of the earth.^[2][4] Of a person it can be the cause of terror, as Petronius' Pompey, “that terror of the sea”.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “fear, trembling” and an object of fear.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of shivering with cold.^[2][3][6]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of the quivering of fires.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of trembling from fear.^[2][4][6]
• before 66 AD – Petronius of a man as a terror.^[2][6]
• late 14th century – Borrowed into English as tremor, through Old French.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. Trembling, shuddering, from fear, cold or illness.^[2][4][1]
2. A cause of terror.^[2][5]
3. Quivering, quaking.^[2][4][1]

Related words

• tremō
• English tremor

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 d e 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com