fessus

French

Adjective

fessus

1. masculine plural of fessu

Latin

Etymology

Possibly for Proto-Italic *fassos, from pre-Italic *dʰH-t-tós, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeH- (“to fade, disappear”) (compare Old Irish ru-deda (“to vanish”), Old English demm (“harm”)), but this is uncertain due to both phonetic and semantic problems. Connected with Latin famēs, affatim, fatīscō, fatīgō.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈfes.sus/, [ˈfɛs̠ːʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈfes.sus/, [ˈfɛsːus]

Adjective

fessus (feminine fessa, neuter fessum, comparative fessior, superlative fessissimus); first/second-declension adjective

1. tired, weary

   Synonyms: frāctus, cōnfectus, dēfessus, languidus

   Antonym: vīvus

   • O mater, ego tam fessa sum., Oh mother, I'm so tired.
   • c. 37 BCE – 30 BCE, Virgil, Georgics 4.265:

     […] ultro / hortantem et fessas ad pabula nota vocantem

     […] freely / calling them and exhorting the weary bees to eat their familiar food.

   • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 3.15:

     fessa resēdit humō

     Weary, she sat down upon the ground

2. weak, enfeebled

   Synonyms: dēbilis, aeger, languidus, fractus, tenuis, mollis, īnfirmus, inops

   Antonyms: praevalēns, fortis, potis, potēns, validus, strēnuus, compos

3. sick, diseased

   Synonyms: aeger, languidus, miser, īnfirmus, affectus

   Antonyms: sānus, salvus, validus, integer, intāctus, salūber

Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

	singular				plural
	masculine	feminine	neuter		masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	fessus	fessa	fessum		fessī	fessae	fessa
genitive	fessī	fessae	fessī		fessōrum	fessārum	fessōrum
dative	fessō	fessae	fessō		fessīs
accusative	fessum	fessam	fessum		fessōs	fessās	fessa
ablative	fessō	fessā	fessō		fessīs
vocative	fesse	fessa	fessum		fessī	fessae	fessa

Derived terms

• Fessōnia
• fessulus

References

• “fessus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “fessus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• fessus in Enrico Olivetti, editor (2003-2025), Dizionario Latino, Olivetti Media Communication
• "fessus", 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)
• fessus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • weary with travelling; way-worn: fessus de via
    
• Pokorny, Julius (1959) “3. dhē-, dhə-”, in Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Indo-European Etymological Dictionary] (in German), volume 1, Bern, München: Francke Verlag, page 239
• De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “fatīgō, -āre”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 204–205