morbus

See also: Morbus

English

Etymology

From Latin morbus.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmɔːbəs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmɔɹbəs/

Noun

morbus (plural morbuses or morbi)

1. (medicine, formal) A disease.
   • 1838, Thomas Hood, “A Rise at the Father of Angling”, in The Comic Annual, page 47:

     I thought he were took with the Morbus one day, I did with his nasty angle!
     For “oh dear,” says he, and burst out in a cry, “oh my gut is all got of a tangle!”

   • 1846, William Andrus Alcott, The Young House-keeper: Or, Thoughts on Food and Cookery, page 214:

     Probably no small share of our cholera morbuses, diarrhœas, and dysenteries, have their origin in this source.

   • 1979, F. Kraupl Taylor, D. M. K. Taylor, The Concepts of Illness, Disease and Morbus, page 117:

     Unfortunately, most of the morbi accepted in modern medicine are only taxonomic entities whose causal derivation is merely partially known and therefore polygenic.

Related terms

• cholera morbus
• morbus coxarius
• morbus cyclometricus
• morbus Dupuytren

References

• “morbus”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

Anagrams

• Borums

Latin

Etymology

Uncertain. Pokorny, writing in the mid 20th-century, connected the term with Ancient Greek μαραίνω (maraínō), Old Irish meirb, Latin mortārium, and Old Norse merja. In more recent writings, de Vaan suggests a possible connection with Proto-Indo-European *mer- (“to die”), whence also morior (“to die”). The root may have been extended with a morpheme *-bʰo-, which perhaps also appears in terms such as sorbum or albus, all of which are adjectives relating to appearance. However, de Vaan notes that Proto-Indo-European formation of the shape *mor-bʰo- is unusual. De Vaan suggests a possible relation to Welsh merwydden and Ancient Greek μόρον (móron), both of which derive from a non-Indo-European substrate.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈmɔr.bʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈmɔr.bus]

Noun

morbus m (genitive morbī); second declension

1. (of the body or mind) a disease, illness, malady, sickness, disorder, distemper, ailment

   Synonyms: aegritūdō, malum, pestis, valētūdō, labor, incommodum, infirmitas

   Antonyms: salūs, valētūdō

   • c. 99 BCE – 55 BCE, Lucretius, De rerum natura 5.220:

     Cur anni tempora morbos adportant?

     Why do the seasons of the year bring maladies?

   • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 4.763–764:

     ‘pelle procul morbōs; valeant hominēsque gregēsque,
     et valeant vigilēs, prōvida turba, canēs.’

     ‘‘Drive diseases far away; may both men and flocks be healthy,
     and healthy too the watching dogs, that foreseeing pack.’’
     (A shepherd’s prayer to Pales.)

2. (of the mind) a fault, vice, failing
3. (of the mind) sorrow, grief, distress
4. death

Declension

Second-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	morbus	morbī
genitive	morbī	morbōrum
dative	morbō	morbīs
accusative	morbum	morbōs
ablative	morbō	morbīs
vocative	morbe	morbī

Derived terms

• morbidus
• morbifer
• morbiferus
• morbificō
• Morbōnia
• morbōsus
• Morbōvia

Related terms

• morbidē
• morbōsitās

Descendants

• ⇒ Asturian: mormera, mormión
• Catalan: borm, morb, morma
• French: morve
• Italian: morbo
• Old Galician-Portuguese: mormo
  • Galician: mormo
  • Portuguese: mormo
• Piedmontese: mòrb
• Romanian: morb
• Sicilian: morvu
• Old Spanish:
  • Spanish: muermo
• → German: Morbus
• → Portuguese: morbo (learned)
• → Spanish: morbo (learned)

Further reading

• “morbus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “morbus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "morbus", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “morbus”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[2], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • he fell ill: in morbum incidit
    
  • to be attacked by disease: morbo tentari or corripi
    
  • to be laid on a bed of sickness: morbo afflīgi
    
  • to be seriously ill: gravi morbo affectum esse, conflictari, vexari
    
  • the disease gets worse: morbus ingravescit
    
  • to be carried off by a disease: morbo absūmi (Sall. Iug. 5. 6)
    
  • to recover from a disease: ex morbo convalescere (not reconvalescere)
    
  • to recruit oneself after a severe illness: e gravi morbo recreari or se colligere
    
  • to excuse oneself on the score of health: valetudinem (morbum) excusare (Liv. 6. 22. 7)
    
  • to die a natural death: morbo perire, absūmi, consūmi
    
  • to pretend to be ill: simulare morbum
    
  • to pretend not to be ill: dissimulare morbum
    
  • to plead ill-health as an excuse for absence: excusare morbum, valetudinem