Definition of languish

The origin of the word "languish" can be traced back to Old French, where it was spelled "languir" or "languiss" and meant "to become weak or feeble." The Old French word is derived from the Latin "linguire," which had multiple meanings, including "to lick," "to languish," and "to wear out." The Latin root "lingua" also gave us the word "language," which shares a common ancestry with "languish" through its original meaning of "tongue." In Old French, "linguire" was used to describe someone who was weak and helpless, like a "tongue that flagged" from hunger or thirst. Throughout its history, "languish" has taken on various meanings and shades of connotation. In the Middle English period, it came to signify a sense of listlessness and spiritual desolation, while by the 17th century, it had acquired its modern sense of "to struggle, suffer, or waste away slowly." Today, "languish" is often used in a grammatical sense to describe a verb in its third principal part or "present principal parts," such as in the phrase "he languishes in bed" to indicate that the subject is in that state at the present time, or "he languished for hours" to convey the idea that it was a prolonged state.