intereō

1. Lues (from λοιμός) denotes epidemic disease, as proceeding from an impure morbid matter; contagium (from contingere? or κατατήκειν?) as contagious; pestilentia, as a disease reigning in the land, and especially as a pestilence. Sall. Cat. 10. Post ubi contagia quasi pestilentia invasit. Plin. H. N. xxiii. 28. Laurus folia pestilentiæ contagia prohibent. Lucan. vi. 86. Fluidæ contagia pestis. 2. Pestis is used for pestilence itself only by the poets; otherwise it denotes, like exitium and pernicies (from necare), that which destroys in general, without reference to disease; but pestis is, according to rule, used as a concrete, exitium and pernicies as abstract terms. Sen. N. Q. iii. pr. Philippi aut Alexandri . . . . qui exitio gentium clari non minores fuere pestes mortalium quam inundatio. 3. Pernicies has an active meaning, and denotes the destruction of a living being by murder; whereas exitium has a passive meaning, and denotes the destruction even of lifeless objects by annihilation; lastly, interitus has, like exitus, a neutral meaning, the destruction of living or lifeless objects by decay. Tac. Ann. xiv. 65. Poppæa non nisi in perniciem uxoris nupta; postremo crimen omni exitio gravius: and ii. 68. Cic. Cat. iv. 3. Cum de pernicie populi Romani, exitio hujus urbis cogitarit. Rull. ii. 4, 10. Extremi exitiorum exitus. 4. Exitium is a violent, exitus a natural end. Cic. Rull. ii. 4, 10. Qui civitatum afflictarum perditis jam rebus extremi exitiorum solent esse exitus, is, as it were, the last breath of a state that is being destroyed; like Verr. v. 6, 12 Exitus exitiales. (ii. 62. iii. 176.)

1. Mors and letum denote a natural death; mors (μόρος) the usual expression in a merely physical sense, as the way to corruption, like θάνατος; letum (from λαχεῖν, λάχεσις,) the select and solemn expression, as the lot of death, like οἶτος; whereas nex (from νεκρός) a violent death, as the passive of cædes. 2. Mors, letum, nex, are proper, whereas obitus and interitus only softer, expressions. Obitus, decease, denotes, like exitus, a natural death; whereas interitus, together with perire, usually denotes, like exitium, a violent death. Plin. Ep. iii. 7. Silius ultimus ex Neronianis consularibus obiit, quo consule Nero periit. Plaut. Epid. iii. 4, 56. Malo cruciatu pereas, atque obeas cito. 3. Perire represents death as destruction and corruption; interire as a vanishing, so that the former applies more to the body, the latter to the soul. Plaut. Capt. iii. 5, 32. Qui per virtutem periit, at non interit; that is, he who dies a noble death, though his body perishes, still lives in name and posthumous renown. Further, perire denotes a sudden and violent death, particularly by self-murder; interire, a gradual and painful, but, it may be, also a peaceful, death. Tac. Ann. xv. 44. Et pereuntibus Christianis addita ludibria, ut ferarum tergis contecti laniatu canum interirent. Serv. ap. Cic. Fam. iv. 5. Si quis nostrum interiit, aut occisus est. 4. Obire mortem denotes to die, as a physical event, by which one ends all suffering; whereas oppetere mortem denotes to die, as a moral act, in as far as a man, if he does not seek death, at any rate awaits it with firmness and contempt of it. 5. Demori denotes to die off, as one belonging to a society, and thereby to occasion a vacancy; intermori, to be apparently dying, to be sick of a lingering disease, like ἐκθανεῖν; emori, to die entirely, in opp. to a mere semblance of life in misfortune, slavery, and disgrace, like πανδίκως θανεῖν. Cic. Pis. 7. Ut emori potius quam servire præstaret. (iii. 182.)