debilis
Latin
Etymology
Traditionally derived from dē- + habilis; see the same contraction in dēbeō. (Can this() etymology be sourced?)
Later scholarship suggests instead a derivation from dē- + Proto-Indo-European *bel- (“power, strength”). Compare Sanskrit बल (bala), Russian большой (bolʹšoj), Ancient Greek βελτίων (beltíōn, “better < stronger”).[1]
Pronunciation
- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): /ˈdeː.bi.lis/, [ˈd̪eːbɪlʲɪs̠]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈde.bi.lis/, [ˈd̪ɛːbilis]
Adjective
dēbilis (neuter dēbile, comparative dēbilior, superlative dēbilissimus); third-declension two-termination adjective
- weak, frail, feeble
- Synonyms: languidus, fractus, aeger, mollis, fessus, tenuis, īnfirmus, inops, obnoxius
- Antonyms: praevalēns, fortis, potis, potēns, validus, strēnuus, compos
- c. 45 BCE, Cicero, Tusculan Disputations 2.13:
- Ita est utraque rēs sine alterā dēbilis.
- Thus each is feeble without the other.
- Ita est utraque rēs sine alterā dēbilis.
- lame, disabled, crippled, infirm, debilitated
- Synonym: claudus
Declension
Third-declension two-termination adjective.
| singular | plural | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| masc./fem. | neuter | masc./fem. | neuter | ||
| nominative | dēbilis | dēbile | dēbilēs | dēbilia | |
| genitive | dēbilis | dēbilium | |||
| dative | dēbilī | dēbilibus | |||
| accusative | dēbilem | dēbile | dēbilēs dēbilīs |
dēbilia | |
| ablative | dēbilī | dēbilibus | |||
| vocative | dēbilis | dēbile | dēbilēs | dēbilia | |
Derived terms
Descendants
Inherited:
- Italo-Dalmatian
- Rhaeto-Romance
- Sardinian: débbile, débbili, díbbile
- Venetan: debol, debole, debolo, debełe
- → Cimbrian: débel
Borrowed:
- → Italian: debile
- Gallo-Romance
- Ibero-Romance
- Others:
References
- ^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “dēbilis”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 162-3
Further reading
- “debilis”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “debilis”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- "debilis", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
- debilis in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
