facinus

Forms

facinus n (genitive facinoris); third declension^[1] The genitive is also facineris.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from faciō “to make, do”, with the ending of pignus.^[2][3][4][1] De Vaan derives ⟨faciō⟩ from Proto-Italic *fak-i-, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰh₁-k- (“to make”), an extension of *dʰeh₁- (“to put”).^[5] Isidore says it is so called “from doing evil”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[5] who has hoc est servī facinus frūgī, “this is the deed of an honest slave”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Facinus is first any deed or act, also an event, a “thing”;^[2][3] Plautus speaks of the brothers Atridae who did facinus maximum, “a very great deed”.^[2][3] Its commonest classical sense is “a misdeed, crime, outrage” (in facinore manifēstō dēprehēnsus, “caught in the act”).^[2][3][1] Wiktionary also gives “venture, undertaking”.^[1]

Church Latin glosses it “crime”, and in Medieval Latin it is “sin”.^[6][7] Döderlein ranks dēlictum and peccātum as lighter offences.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: hoc est servī facinus frūgī.^[2][9]
• 190–159 BC – Terence: sua quae narrat facinora, “the deeds he tells of”.^[2][9]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero: in facinore manifēstō dēprehēnsus.^[2][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A deed, act, action; an event.^[2][3][1]
2. A venture, undertaking.^[1]
3. A misdeed, crime, outrage.^[2][3][1][6]
4. (Medieval Latin) A sin.^[7]

Word family

• facinorōsus
• facinerōsus

Related words

• faciō
• factum
• scelus
• flāgitium

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b 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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
9. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de