English
relapse
Relapse comes from Latin relapsus ‘having slid, glided or sinked back’, and goes back to lābor ‘to slip, slide, fall’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CElāboras labi‘to slip, slide, fall’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CErelabi‘to slide back, fall back’next step skipped: Latin relābor
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CErelapsus‘having slid, glided or sinked back’past participle of relabi
- Englishearliest quotation 1671relapse
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CElāboras labi‘to slip, slide, fall’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CErelabi‘to slide back, fall back’next step skipped: Latin relābor
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CErelapsus‘having slid, glided or sinked back’past participle of relabi
- Englishearliest quotation 1671relapse
Earliest quotation: 1671, John Milton, The Second Book: “Alas! from what high hope to what relapse /…”
Linked words
through Latin lābor ‘to slip, slide, fall’
labour, collaboration, laboratory, elaborate, lava, collapse, laborious, labile, 10 more
Today it means
verb To fall back again; to slide or turn back into a former state or practice.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin lābor / relapse