callidus

Forms

callidus (feminine callida, neuter callidum, comparative callidior, superlative callidissimus, adverb callidē); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin calleō (“to be hardened; to be skilled”) + -idus.^[2][1][3] The verb comes from callum (“hard skin”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *kaln/so- (“hard”), comparing Old Irish calath (“hard”) and Welsh caled (“hard”); its Indo-European origin is uncertain.^[4] Cicero explains ⟨callidī⟩ as people whose minds have grown hard with use, as the hand does with work.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Plautus as its first author.^[3] In the Poenulus a woman is praised as tam callida et docta … et facēta, “so clever, learned and witty”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is wise from experience, practised or expert, with a genitive or dative of the field, as Columella's men most skilled in farming, and with an infinitive, as Horace's Mercury, clever at hiding anything he likes.^[2] It is clever or ingenious, and of things ingeniously made: Cicero says nothing could be cleverer than nature.^[2] Very often it is crafty or cunning: Plautus' Mercury says he must be bad, crafty and sly, and a slave drives a crafty old man with crafty tricks.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “crafty, subtle”.^[6] Wiktionary gives Medieval and Church Latin “discreet”.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of cleverness and craft.^[2][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of nature's ingenuity.^[2][3]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of Mercury's skill.^[2][3]
• 1st century AD – Columella of skill in farming.^[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Experienced, practised, expert (in something).^[2][1]
2. Clever, ingenious, resourceful.^[2][1]
3. Crafty, cunning, sly.^[2][1][6]
4. (Medieval Latin) Discreet.^[1]

Word family

• calliditās
• callidulus
• incallidus
• callidē

Related words

• calleō
• callum

Usage notes

Döderlein sets callidus beside astūtus: both mean cunning as a mark of cleverness, but astūtus is sharpness in planning a secret scheme, callidus the shrewd judgement of a man who knows the world, and in a bad sense crafty; vafer and versūtus are cunning as dishonesty.^[7] He also contrasts prūdēns, natural good judgement, with callidus, worldly knowledge gained by practice.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper