dormito Latin · revision 33282

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=c. 250–184 BC, Plautus|origins=ine-pro *drm-i̯e-}}

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''dormītō''' (present infinitive dormītāre, perfect active dormītāvī, supine dormītātum); first conjugation^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|dormiō|-itō|t1=to sleep]].^(OLD 2012)^(de Vaan 2008)^(TLL) De Vaan traces [[m|la|dormiō]] to [[itc-pro|*dormje/o-]] and [[ine-pro|*drm-i̯e-|t=to sleep]].^(de Vaan 2008) Cognate with [[grc|δαρθάνω|tr=darthánō|t=to fall asleep]].^(de Vaan 2008) The grammarian Consentius notes that it looks like a frequentative but is used rather of beginning to sleep.^(TLL)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^(de Vaan 2008) in whom someone is told that he has been dozing in idleness till this time of day and should shake off his sloth.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It means to feel sleepy, to drowse or nod off;^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Cicero has it in his letters and in the ''De divinatione''.^(Lewis & Short 1879) From the first it is also used of letting one's energy or attention flag:^(OLD 2012) Horace's ''quandoque bonus dormitat Homērus'', “sometimes even good Homer nods”, is quoted by Seneca and Quintilian.^(OLD 2012) Ovid applies it to a lamp about to go out, ''dormītante lucernā''.^(Lewis & Short 1879) In Church Latin it is to sleep or to be lazy.^(Stelten 1995)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of dozing in idleness.^(OLD 2012)^(de Vaan 2008)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero, of drowsiness.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 65–8 BC – Horace, “good Homer nods”.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid, of a lamp going out.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Verb===

+ # To feel [[m|en|sleepy]], to [[m|en|drowse]], to begin to sleep.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # To let one's energy or attention flag; to be sluggish, do nothing.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(Stelten 1995)

+ # ''(poetic)'' Of a lamp, to be going out.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[dormītātiō]]

+ * [[dormītātor]]

+ * [[obdormītō]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[dormiō]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ ''Quandoque bonus dormitat Homērus'' (Horace, ''Ars poetica'' 359) became proverbial for a lapse by a great writer.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}