entry
belabor
/bɪˈleɪbər/Attack verbally or work on excessively
From Middle English; Germanic prefix be- (On) + Latin, via Old French labor (Toil).
Word Ancestry
Picture someone not merely working, but leaning bodily into a task: that is the force of be- in belabor, “upon” or “over,” joined to Latin labor, “toil” or “hardship.” The word first had a surprisingly agricultural flavor: belabored could mean “tilled” or “cultivated” in the fifteenth century, before the modern sense of verbally pounding away at a point appeared in the 1590s. Latin labor itself wandered through Old French labor and Middle English labour, gathering meanings such as pain, fatigue, childbirth, and even a finished product—the result of work. Its ultimate origin is uncertain; one proposal connects it with Latin labare, “to totter,” imagining a person staggering under a burden, but the etymologist Michiel de Vaan considers that explanation unconvincing. So when a speaker belabors an argument, the metaphor is wonderfully physical: the argument has become a stubborn patch of earth, and the speaker keeps hammering at it long after the seeds—or the audience’s patience—are gone.
The Story
Picture someone not merely working, but leaning bodily into a task: that is the force of be- in belabor, “upon” or “over,” joined to Latin labor, “toil” or “hardship.” The word first had a surprisingly agricultural flavor: belabored could mean “tilled” or “cultivated” in the fifteenth century, before the modern sense of verbally pounding away at a point appeared in the 1590s. Latin labor itself wandered through Old French labor and Middle English labour, gathering meanings such as pain, fatigue, childbirth, and even a finished product—the result of work. Its ultimate origin is uncertain; one proposal connects it with Latin labare, “to totter,” imagining a person staggering under a burden, but the etymologist Michiel de Vaan considers that explanation unconvincing. So when a speaker belabors an argument, the metaphor is wonderfully physical: the argument has become a stubborn patch of earth, and the speaker keeps hammering at it long after the seeds—or the audience’s patience—are gone.
Kin & Kindred
From 'be-'·On, upon, about, or over
Derived Terms
English words from this root
From 'labor'·Toil, exertion, hardship, or work
Derived Terms
English words from this root