deliquium

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin deliquium, from Latin delinquere (“to lack, to fail”).

Noun

deliquium (plural deliquiums)

1. (physical chemistry) Liquefaction through absorption of moisture from the air.
2. (pathology) An abrupt loss of consciousness usually caused by an insufficient blood flow to the brain; fainting.
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, page 387:

     If he be locked in a close room, he is afraid of being stifled for want of air, and still carries biscuit, aquavitæ, or some strong waters about him, for fear of deliquiums, or being sick […]

3. (literary, figuratively) A languid, maudlin mood.
4. (rare) An abrupt absence of sunlight, e.g. caused by an eclipse.

Latin

Noun

dēliquium n (genitive dēliquiī or dēliquī); second declension

1. want, defect
2. failure
3. eclipse

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

	singular	plural
nominative	dēliquium	dēliquia
genitive	dēliquiī dēliquī1	dēliquiōrum
dative	dēliquiō	dēliquiīs
accusative	dēliquium	dēliquia
ablative	dēliquiō	dēliquiīs
vocative	dēliquium	dēliquia

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

References

• “deliquium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• deliquium in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.