Languish/Sleep #etymology

Have you been finding it hard to truly relax, not feeling exactly bad but not really relishing life, and maybe wanting to sleep all the time? Well it may be that you’re languishing, not depressed but not flourishing, somewhere in between the two, and it turns out that this psychological diagnosis is backed up by etymology too. Sleep, from Old English slæpan “to be or fall asleep; be dormant or inactive”, comes from the Proto-Indo-European root *sleb- “to be weak, sleep”, which likely comes from the root *sle-, also the root of *(s)leg- “to be slack, be languid”, which through the Germanic branch also gives us Old English slæc “loose” and thus Modern English slack. The root *(s)leg- also makes its way into Latin as laxus “wide, loose, open, spacious, roomy”, which not only lies behind English lax, but also, when combined with the prefix re- “back”, relax, release, and relish, which are all developments of Latin relaxare “to stretch out or widen again; to unloose, loosen, open” which passed through Old French in the slightly different forms relaschier “to set free; soften; reduce”, relaissier “to relinquish, quit, let go, leave behind, abandon, acquit”, and relais “something remaining, that which is left behind” (from relaisser “to leave behind”). The sense of “taste” in relish comes from the notion of what is “released” or “left behind” after the food is swallowed. Languish, which comes from Old French languir “to be listless, pine, grieve, fall ill” , from Latin languere “to be weak or faint”, also from the root *(s)leg-, was taken up by sociologist and psychologist Corey Keyes, who coined the terms languishing and flourishing.