dehonestamentum

Forms

dehonestāmentum n (genitive dehonestāmentī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dehonestō (“to disgrace”) + -mentum.^[2][3][1] De Vaan derives honestus (“honourable”) and honestō (“to honour”) from honōs (“honour”), for which no further etymology is known.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Sallust on,^[3] whose Histories, quoted by Gellius, say that Sertorius rejoiced in the disfigurement of his body;^[3][5] Georges explains this as wounds and a lost eye.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Apart from Sallust, Lewis and Short find it only after Augustus, in place of dēdecus or ignōminia.^[5] Seneca lists insults, ignominies and other indignities, and Tacitus uses it of a face disfigured in the same way and of buffoons, actors and charioteers who were a disgrace to friendship.^[2][6] Sallust and Trebellius Pollio call a person the disgrace of all honours, and Justinus speaks of a disgrace of birth.^[6]

In medieval Latin it also meant an encroachment or derogatory act.^[7] Bede uses it of the disfigurement of tearing one's clothes and pulling out one's hair, and a British source of 1382 of an insult.^[8]

Timeline

• 86–34 BC – Sallust uses it of a disfigured body and of a disgraceful person.^[3][6][9]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of indignities.^[2][9]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of a disfigured face and disgraceful company.^[2][9]
• 1382 – A British source uses it of an insult.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A disfigurement, blemish.^[2][5]
2. A source of disgrace or dishonour; of a person, a disgrace (to something).^[2][6]
3. An act inflicting dishonour, an indignity, insult.^[2][8]
4. (Medieval Latin) An encroachment, derogatory action.^[7]

Related words

• dehonestō
• dēdecus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d 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 c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b c Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de