morior

Latin

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *morjōr, from Proto-Indo-European *mer- (to die).

Cognate with Ancient Greek βροτός (brotós, mortal), Proto-Germanic *murþaz, Proto-Celtic *marwos, Lithuanian mirti (death), Sanskrit मृत्यु (mṛtyú, death), Proto-Slavic *merti. Related to mors (death).

Pronunciation

Verb

morior (present infinitive morī, perfect active mortuus sum); third conjugation -variant, deponent

  1. to die, be slain, fall (in battle), perish
    Synonyms: pereō, occumbō, dēfungor, exspīrō, intereō, dēcēdō, cadō, occidō, excēdō, discēdō, dēficiō
    • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 4.659–660:
      Moriēmur inultae / sed moriāmur
      We will die unavenged, but let us die.”
      (Dido here speaks of herself using the royal we or majestic we, which some translations honor, and others alter to first-person singular: “I shall die…”.)
    • 23 BCE – 13 BCE, Horace, Odes 3.2.13:
      Dulce et decōrum est prō patriā morī.
      Sweet and fitting it is to die for one's fatherland.
  2. to decay, wither

Conjugation

Antonyms

Derived terms

Descendants

(Several descendants reflect a fourth-conjugation variant (morior, morīrī) attested in Plautus, Ennius, and Ovid.)[1]

  • Insular Romance:
    • Sardinian: morrere (Logudorese), morriri (Campidanese)
  • Balkano-Romance:
  • Italo-Dalmatian:
  • Rhaeto-Romance:
  • Gallo-Italic:
  • Gallo-Romance:
    • Northern:
      • Franco-Provençal: morir
      • Old French: morir, murir (see there for further descendants)
    • Southern:
  • Ibero-Romance:

References

  1. ^ Joan Coromines, José A[ntonio] Pascual (1985) “morir”, in Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico [Critical Castilian and Hispanic Etymological Dictionary] (in Spanish), volume IV (Me–Re), Madrid: Gredos, →ISBN, page 149

Further reading

  • morior”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • morior”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • morior in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
  • Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
    • (ambiguous) to die at a good old age: exacta aetate mori
    • (ambiguous) to starve oneself to death: inediā mori or vitam finire
    • (ambiguous) to die a natural death: necessaria (opp. voluntaria) morte mori
    • (ambiguous) to die of wounds: ex vulnere mori (Fam. 10. 33)