laxe Latin · revision 33397

+ {{infobox|confidence=probable|formation=derivation|attested=c. 250–184 BC, Plautus|origins=ine-pro *slǵ-so-}}

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''laxē''' (comparative laxius, superlative laxissimē)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|laxus|-ē|t1=loose, wide]].^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010) De Vaan reconstructs that adjective as [[itc-pro|*(s)lakso-]] and [[ine-pro|*slǵ-so-|t=weak, faint]], the root of [[m|la|langueō|t=to be faint]], explaining the vowel by a sound rule of Schrijver's.^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Its earliest citation in the OLD is in Plautus, ''sin res laxe labat'' in the sense “on a large scale”.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Most uses are spatial: over a wide area (Mela), with room to spare (Ovid, stretching one's limbs at ease on a bed), and at wide intervals (Columella, of sowing seed thinly); ''laxe habitare'' was to live in a roomy house.^(OLD 2012) It also means slackly or loosely, as of cloths hung loosely in the historian Sisenna, and, of attention, carelessly: Sallust writes of the hope that the Romans, free from fear, would grow slacker and more licentious.^(OLD 2012) Of time it means without strict limits, as Cicero's ''laxius proferre diem'', to put off a day further.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, “on a large scale”.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 120–67 BC – Sisenna, “slackly”.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero, of loose limits of time.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 1st century AD – Columella, “at wide intervals”.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Adverb===

+ # Over a large area, widely, [[m|en|spaciously]]; with room to spare; at wide intervals, sparsely.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)

+ # On a large scale, liberally, [[m|en|lavishly]].^(OLD 2012)

+ # [[m|en|slack|alt=Slackly]], [[m|en|loosely]]; without attention, carelessly.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)

+ # Of time: without close limits, at length.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[laxāmentum]]

+ * [[laxitās]]

+ * [[laxō]]

+ * [[laxus]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}