lētum

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.)