Etymologically
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deformitas

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [deːˈfoːr.mɪ.taːs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [deˈfɔr.mi.tas][1]

Forms

dēfōrmitās f (genitive dēfōrmitātis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dēfōrmis (“misshapen, ugly”) + -tās.[2][1][3] dēfōrmis is formed from fōrma (“shape, beauty”), whose origin de Vaan finds unclear: it may go back to *morma, and it and Ancient Greek μορφή (morphḗ, “form, shape”) may have been borrowed from a third language, or the Greek word may have reached Latin through Etruscan.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Cicero on, who notes that ugliness offers good material for jokes.[3][2]

Semantic evolution

It is ugliness or unsightliness, and disfigurement, as when Livy says that a man was still recognised in all his disfigurement.[2] Cicero sets the deformity of the body against the far worse foulness of the mind.[5] Apuleius uses it of walls in disrepair, and Seneca of shapelessness.[2] Morally it is disgrace or degradation, and in style a lack of taste, an impropriety.[2] The TLL notes that the poets, Caesar and Sallust do not use it, and records the plural in Gellius and Augustine.[3] Glossaries explain it with flāgitium and turpitūdō.[3]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of ugliness and of disgrace.[2][3][6]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of a disfigured man.[2][6]
  • c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius of walls in disrepair.[2][6]
  • early 15th century – English deformity is borrowed through Old French.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Ugliness, unsightliness, deformity.[2][5][1]
  2. Disfigurement; of things, defacement, disrepair.[2][1]
  3. Disgrace, degradation, baseness.[2][1]
  4. Lack of good taste, inelegance, impropriety.[2]
  5. Lack of shape, shapelessness.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  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. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com