Etymologically
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faex

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 19 October 2026 at 19:25. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈfae̯ks][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈfɛks][1]

Forms

faex f (genitive faecis); third declension[1] It is also spelled fēx, fēcis.[2][3] Charisius gives the genitive plural faecum.[4]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.[5][2][3][4] De Vaan has no etymology for it, and Köbler follows Walde and Hofmann in calling it uncertain.[5][6] Wiktionary suggests a borrowing from a substrate language, and rejects a connection with Proto-Indo-European *dʰrā́ks (“dregs, sediment”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Cato,[5][6] who tells the farmer to rub the sides of the jars so that the lees do not stick and explains how to draw wine off the dregs.[2]

Semantic evolution

In Cato it is the sediment of wine, the lees or tartar, and the dregs at the bottom of the jar;[2] Horace's “jars drunk down to the dregs” uses it of the very end of the wine.[2] It extends to the sediment of any liquid, slag or dross, and any impure admixture, as Ovid's pure upper air that has nothing of earthly dregs.[2] Contemptuously it is the dregs or scum of people, as in Cicero's guilds stirred up from all the dregs of the city and slaves.[2][4] Wiktionary adds salt of tartar, a brine for pickling and rouge.[1] Church Latin glosses it mire, ooze or dregs,[7] and Medieval Latin uses it in brewing of the mixture of herbs used to ferment beer.[8][1] It survives in Italian feccia,[1] and its plural is the source of English feces (c. 1400, “dregs”), which took the sense of excrement only in the 1630s.[9]

Timeline

  • 234–149 BC – Cato of wine lees.[2][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of the dregs of the city.[2][6]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace of a jar drunk to the dregs.[2][6]
  • c. 1400 – Its plural is borrowed into English as feces, “dregs”.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Lees, dregs or tartar of wine; the sediment at the bottom of a jar.[2][4][1]
  2. The sediment of any liquid; slag, dross.[2][4]
  3. Any impure admixture.[2]
  4. Contemptuously, the dregs or scum of people; anything base.[2][4][1]
  5. Brine used for pickling; rouge used as make-up.[1]
  6. (Medieval Latin) In brewing, a mixture of herbs used to ferment beer, grout.[8][1]

Word family

  • dēfaecō
  • faecārius
  • faecātus
  • faeceus
  • faecinius
  • faecula
  • faeculentus
  • infaeco
  • English feces

References

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