# moestificare



## Löwenfrau

Hi!

Which is the fundamental meaning of _moestificare_? _To aflict_? _To molest_? Actually, is 'molest' derived from it? 

Many thanks!


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## Schimmelreiter

_maerere/moerere
to be sad or mournful, to mourn, grieve, lament

>>>

maestus/moestus, -a, -um
_class.: _full of sadness, sad, sorrowful, afflicted, dejected, melancholy_ 
poet. and in post-Aug. prose: _gloomy, severe by nature; connected with mourning; containing, causing, or showing sadness; sad, unhappy, unlucky_ 

>>>

_maestificere/moestificere
to make sad/sorrowful/gloomy etc.

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maestificare/moestificare
to make *intensely *__sad/sorrowful/gloomy etc._​




Löwenfrau said:


> is 'molest' derived from it?


I don't think _maestus/moestus _and _molestus_ are cognates. Where would the _L_ come from?


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## Löwenfrau

That's exactly what is confusing me:

*to make* intensely sad/sorrowful etc.
or
*to feel* intensely sad/sorrowful etc.?

Or, unlike Portuguese (and English), it means both?


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## Schimmelreiter

_to make


_Contextum, quaeso!


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## Löwenfrau

Context is Mauthner, as always :

"Littré lehnt zwar die Ableitung aus lat. _moestificare_ (betrüben) ab, erinnert aber überflüssigerweise an ein vergessenes _mistigouri_."


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## Schimmelreiter

Löwenfrau said:


> "Littré lehnt zwar die Ableitung aus lat. _moestificare_ (betrüben) ab, erinnert aber überflüssigerweise an ein vergessenes _mistigouri_."


So there's the translation there anyway: _betrüben - to make sad/sorrowful - facere moestum aliquem_


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## Löwenfrau

Schimmelreiter said:


> So there's the translation there anyway: _betrüben - to make sad/sorrowful - facere moestum aliquem_



Sure. I was just preventing from any possible mistake of Mauthner himself.


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