Etymologically
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cinaedus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kɪˈnae̯.dʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [t͡ʃiˈnɛː.dus][1]

Forms

cinaedus m (genitive cinaedī); second declension[1] Inscriptions at Pompeii spell it cinedus.[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek κίναιδος (kínaidos, “catamite; lewd dancer”).[3][4][1] Wiktionary notes that the Greek word first meant a foreign dancer whose act featured movements of the buttocks, and that it may come from a language of Asia Minor.[1] Nonius reports that the old writers called dancers and pantomimes by this name, deriving it from κινέω (kinéō, “to move”), to move the body.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus, whose Asinaria calls a man a curled cinaedus.[5][3]

Semantic evolution

It is a man who submits to anal sex, a catamite, sometimes loosely an effeminate or luxurious man.[3][4][1] Lewis & Short cite Scipio Africanus through Gellius, Catullus, Petronius and Juvenal.[4] A glossary explains it as people who shake their buttocks in public, and another as those whom the Apostle called ⟨mollēs⟩.[2] Martial applies it to Sotades, author of the obscene poems called Kinaidoi.[3] Pliny the Elder uses it of a yellow sea fish.[3] As an adjective it means typical of a cinaedus, wanton.[3][4] Pompeian graffiti spell it ⟨cinedus⟩.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it as an insult.[3][5]
  • 185/184–129 BC – Scipio Africanus the Younger uses it.[4][5]
  • 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it.[4][5]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of a sea fish.[3][5]
  • 40–102/103 AD – Martial of Sotades.[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A catamite, a man who submits to anal sex; loosely, an effeminate man.[3][4][1]
  2. A sea fish.[3]

Adjective

  1. Typical of a cinaedus, wanton, shameless.[3][4][1]

Word family

  • cinaedicus
  • cinaedulus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de