Laborabatis

Laborabatis is a Latin verb form, the second-person plural imperfect active indicative of laborare, meaning “you were working” or “you used to work.” It appears in classical Latin as part of narrative and description to indicate an ongoing or repeated action in the past.

Etymology and morphology: The form derives from the verb stem labor-, from the first-conjugation verb laborare. The imperfect in the second person plural is formed with the suffix -batis, yielding laborabatis. The general imperfect endings for the first conjugation are -bam, -bas, -bat, -bamus, -batis, -bant; thus laborabatis follows this pattern.

Usage: The imperfect tense describes ongoing or habitual past activity, often used to set scenes in prose and poetry. It can be employed with time clauses to indicate duration or customary action, rather than a single completed event.

Example: Dum in horto laborabatis, aves cantabant. Translation: While you were working in the garden, the birds were singing.

Related forms and notes: Other tenses of laborare include laboro (present), laboravit (perfect), and laborabat (3rd person singular imperfect). The present second-person plural is laboratis, while laborabatis is specifically the imperfect. The form is a standard part of Latin conjugation and does not constitute a separate lexical item beyond the verb laborare.

See also: Latin verbs, Latin conjugation, laborare.