Etymologically
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criminosus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kriː.mɪˈnoː.sʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [kri.miˈnɔː.s̬us][1]

Forms

crīminōsus (feminine crīminōsa, neuter crīminōsum, superlative crīminōsissimus); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin crīmen (“charge, accusation”) + -ōsus.[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero,[4] who fears his gratitude to someone might be held against him, mihi criminosum esse.[5] Afranius has non sum tam criminosa quam tu, vipera, “I am not as slanderous as you, you viper”.[2]

Semantic evolution

Of people it is given to accusing and slandering, and of speeches accusatory: Cicero calls a man bitter, slanderous, a demagogue and a troublemaker.[5][2] It is also what reflects badly on someone, shameful: Cicero says Verres never thought it shameful to have a cargo ship built openly for him.[2] Columella uses it of what was a criminal offence for a senator, owning more than fifty iugera.[2] Gellius has it of a wife, guilty and vicious.[2] Cassiodorus uses it as a noun, “a guilty man”,[5][4] and in medieval Latin it is guilty or sinful, and as a noun a criminal or sinner.[6]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, of what can be held against someone.[5][4]
  • 1st century AD – Columella, of a criminal offence.[2][4]
  • c. 165 AD – Gellius, of a guilty wife.[2][4]
  • c. 485–c. 580 AD – Cassiodorus, “a guilty man”.[5][4]
  • Medieval Latin – Sinful; a sinner.[6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Accusatory, reproachful, slanderous.[2][5][1][7]
  2. Shameful, dishonouring; constituting a criminal offence.[2][1]
  3. Guilty, vicious;[2] (Medieval Latin) sinful.[6]

Noun

  1. (Late and Medieval Latin) A guilty man, a criminal; a sinner.[5][6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson