labor

Meaning

Noun

1. (declension-3, masculine) work
2. (declension-3, masculine) labor, toil, exertion
3. (declension-3, masculine, poetic) hardship, trouble, fatigue, suffering, drudgery, distress
4. (declension-3, masculine) illness
5. (declension-3, masculine) the pain accompanying childbirth, labour

Verb

1. (conjugation-3, deponent) to slip, slide, glide; (of fluids) to flow gently
2. (conjugation-3, deponent) to fall, sink down
3. (conjugation-3, deponent) to slip, stumble
4. (conjugation-3, deponent) to vanish, pass away, elapse, escape
5. (conjugation-3, deponent) to be mistaken, be wrong, err, commit a fault

Concepts

work

labour

effort

hardship

job

accomplishment

achievement

distress

exertion

feat

labor

slip away

fatigue

sink

industry

strain

struggle

toil

trouble

diligence

industriousness

hardip

doing

Opposite of

salūs, valētūdō

Synonyms

opera

opus

industria

poena

aerumna

moles

Translations

Arbeit

lavoro

trabajo

travail

werk

fatica

arbeid

iş

peine

έργο

αγγαρεία

trabalho

Mühe

Pronounced as (IPA)

[ˈɫa.bɔr]

Etymology

From Old Latin labōs, of uncertain origin. Perhaps from a Proto-Indo-European root *leb- (“to seize, take”), whence Sanskrit लभते (labhate, “take, gain”) and Lithuanian lõbis (“wealth”). More commonly connected with labō (“I totter”) (see Etymology 2 below), via semantic development "teetering under a heavy load" → "burden" → "work", but this is rejected by De Vaan, who however provides no alternative. The semantic connection is weak in either case.
Prósper (2019, 27 (483)) suggests a possible root *dh̥₂bʰ-ōs, cognate with Lithuanian dobti (“to strike, beat, kill, (dial.) torment, exhaust”). See source for more.