Etymologically
Log in

exsecrabilis

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 15:20. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɛks.sɛˈkraː.bɪ.lɪs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [eks.seˈkraː.bi.lis][1]

Forms

exsecrābilis (neuter exsecrābile); third-declension two-termination adjective[1] It is also spelled execrābilis.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin exsecror (“to curse”) + -bilis.[2][4] The verb is formed from ex- and sacer (“sacred; accursed”),[1] which goes back to Proto-Italic *sakro- (“sacred”) and Proto-Indo-European *sh₂k-ro- (“sacred”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first example is from a tragedy of Accius, of a tyrant's cruel and accursed nature.[2]

Semantic evolution

In Livy people complain of their accursed fortune, and it has an active sense, “of cursing”: the priests lead a carmen exsecrabile, a song of execration, and Livy speaks of a hatred of the Romans that amounts to execration.[2][3] Valerius Maximus calls a place accursed and dire, Pliny the Elder finds no animal more detestable than one he describes, and the Vulgate uses it in Leviticus.[2][3] Augustine has the comparative adverb exsecrabilius.[3]

In medieval British Latin it keeps the sense “execrable, hateful”; 14th-century sources also use it as the name of a papal constitution beginning with the word Execrabilis.[6] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means abhorrent, detestable or accursed.[7]

Timeline

  • 170–c. 90 BC – Accius uses it of a tyrant's nature.[2][8]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of fortune and of a song of execration.[2][8]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of an animal.[2][8]
  • 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it in Leviticus.[3][8]
  • 354–430 AD – Augustine uses the comparative adverb.[3][8]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Accursed, detestable, execrable.[2][3]
  2. Of cursing, uttering curses;[2][3] (of hatred) amounting to execration.[2][3]
  3. (Medieval Latin) Execrabilis, the name of a papal constitution.[6]

Word family

  • exsecrābilitās

References

  1. ^ a b c d 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. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b 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
  7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de