LOGOI

The corpus record — Latin

fleo

fleo

to weep, cry

Generated live from the audited Latin corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

Where it lives

Densest 12 of 174 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. fleo — de Vaan

fleo 'to weep, cry' [v. II; ptflevf, ppp.fletum] (Naev.+) Derivatives: flebilis 'worthy of tears; causing tears' (Lucil.+), fletus^ -us 'weeping' (Enn.+); afflere 'to weep at' (PI.), deflere 't© mourn the loss of (PL+). Pit. *fle(jefo-\ PIE pr. *b h Ieh r /*b h lh r or *bhlehrie/o- 'to bleat, cry'. IE cognates: Hit. palVae-zi 'to cry out, shout for joy' (< *bhlhruo-ie-?; cf. Kloekhorst 2008: 623); RuCS blejatu Ru. … — [de Vaan, s.v. fleo, p. 240]

2. flĕo — Lewis & Short

flĕo, flēvi, flētum, 2 (contr. forms flēsti,

Ov. H. 5, 43; 45:
I flēmus, Prop. 2, 7, 2; cf. Lachm. ad Lucr. p. 291: flērunt, Verg. G. 4, 461; Stat. S. 2, 1, 175: flēsset, id. ib. 145: flēsse, Ov. M. 6, 404; Liv. 30, 44, 7), v. n. and a. [for flev-o, root flu-; Gr. flu/w, to bubble up, etc.; L. fluo, fluvius, etc.; cf. Georg Curtius Gr. Etym. p. 301 sq.].
I Neutr.
A Lit., to weep, cry, shed tears (syn.: ploro, lugeo, lacrimo): maerentes, flentes, lacrimantes, commiserantes, Enn. ap. Diom. p. 442 P. (Ann. 107 ed. Vahl.): fleo, quia dijungimur, Plaut. Mil. 4, 8, 18: quin fles, id. Ps. 1, 1, 73: nimium haec flet, id. Mil. 4, 8, 14: ne fle, mulier! id. Ep. 4, 2, 31: quid fles, Asterie? Hor. C. 3, 7, 1: ille me complexus atque osculans flere prohibebat, Cic. Rep. 6, 14 fin.: haec cum pluribus verbis flens a Caesare peteret, Caes. B. G. 1, 20, 5; cf. id. ib. 7, 26, 3; id. B. C. 1, 76, 1; 3, 98, 2: deceptus quoniam flevit et ipse, deus, Prop. 2, 16 (3, 8), 54: felix qui potuit praesenti flere puellae, before, in the presence of, Prop. 1, 12, 15; cf. Tib. 1, 10, 64: o multa fleturum caput! Hor. Epod. 5, 74: lapides mehercule omnes flere et lamentari coëgisses, Cic. de Or. 1, 57, 245.—Pass. impers.: ad sepulcrum venimus: in ignem posita est: fletur, Ter. And. 1, 1, 102: minus est, quod flendum meo nomine quam quod gaudendum illius est, Quint. 6 praef. § 8; so id. 6, 2, 3; 11, 1, 52.—
B Transf. *
1 Of horses, to neigh: equorum greges comperit ubertim flere, Suet. Caes. 81.—
2 Of things, to drop, trickle (ante- and post-class.): uberibus flent omnia guttis, Lucr. 1, 349: flevit in templis ebur, Sen. Thyest. 702: imber, Prud. Cath. 5, 24.
II Act., to weep for, bewail, lament, a person or thing; to sing mournfully (mostly poet. and in post-Aug. prose; once in Cic.): He. Ne fle. Er. Egone illum non fleam? egone non defleam Talem adolescentem? Plaut. Capt. 1, 2, 36: unicum (filium) mater, Cat. 39, 5: parentes Troĭlon, Hor. C. 2, 9, 17: Gygen, id. ib. 3, 7, 1; amissas amicitias, Cat. 96, 4: * Pisonem eis verbis flens meum casum vexavit, Cic. Sest. 28, 60: filii necem, Tac. A. 6, 10; 2, 71: suam vicem, Curt. 10, 5, 21: servitutem tristem, Phaedr. 1, 2, 6: amissum conjugem, Just. 28, 4, 4: fidem mutatosque deos, Hor. C. 1, 5, 6: moechos arrogantes, id. ib. 1, 25, 10: catellam raptam sibi, id. Ep. 1, 17, 56: amorem testudine, id. Epod. 14, 11: feralia carmina, to sing, Col. poët. 10, 350: virum, Sen. Contr. 2, 11, 1: amissum fratrem, id. ib. 4, 29, 8: adlatum ad se Pompeii caput, id. ib. 10, 32, 1.—In part. perf.: multum fleti ad superos, bewailed, lamented, Verg. A. 6, 481; Stat. Th. 4, 103.—
(b) With object-clause: agmina septem Flebis in aeterno surda jacere situ, Prop. 1, 7, 18; Val. Fl. 1, 633.—Hence, flē-tus, a, um, P. a., weeping: mater fleta et lacrimosa, App. M. 7, p. 199 fin. (but in Lucr. 2, 631 the correct read. is sanguinolenti).

3. fleö — Walde–Hofmann

fleö, för, fletum, -£re ,(be)weine" Seit Naev., rom. nur flebilis „beweinenswert“ seit Lucil. [rom. „schwach“, vgl. d. jämmerlich, kläglich., 93* 516 fleo — flexuntes. — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. fleö, p. 547]

In the wild

6 of 932 attestations shown.

Where it came from

  • de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) Treated in de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) s.v. fleo (scan p. 240; entry #588). Root candidates: *ble-.
  • Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. fleö (scan pp. 547-548; entry #1137).

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Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.