consceleratus
Forms
cōnscelerātus (feminine cōnscelerāta, neuter cōnscelerātum, superlative cōnscelerātissimus); first/second-declension adjective[1]
Etymology
Used as an adjective, it is the past participle from Latin cōnscelerō (“to defile with crime”).[2][1][3] That verb is built on scelus (“crime”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *skelos and Proto-Indo-European *skel-os (“curve, bending”), assuming a shift from crooked to wicked; he compares Ancient Greek σκέλος (skélos, “leg”) and Ancient Greek σκολιός (skoliós, “crooked, unjust”).[4]
Earliest recorded meaning
Köbler dates it from Cicero.[5] The TLL's first quotation is his speech for Sextus Roscius, where the Furies punish the most wicked sons.[6]
Semantic evolution
It is criminal, wicked, depraved, of people and, as a noun, of a villain.[2][1] Cicero has it of actions too: a consul's betrayal judged criminal, and the leaders of a most wicked and dangerous war.[2] The superlative is in Cicero and Augustine.[6]
Timeline
- 81–43 BC – Cicero of wicked sons and of a criminal betrayal.[6][2][5]
- 354–430 AD – Augustine has the superlative.[6][5]
Meanings
Adjective
- Criminal, wicked, depraved; of actions, criminal.[2][3][1][6]
- As a noun, a wicked person, villain.[2][1]
Related words
References
- ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
- ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
- ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften