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fastidium

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word fastidium

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Compound
First attested
c. 250–184 BC, Plautus
Ultimate origin
Latin (fāstus,taedium)

Forms

fastīdium n (genitive fastīdiī or fastīdī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is a compound of fāstus (“disdain”) and taedium (“weariness”), shortened by haplology from ⟨*fastu-tīdium⟩.[2][3][1][4] De Vaan adds that ⟨fāstus⟩ itself has no certain etymology: a link with Proto-Italic *farsti- (“top”) would need a shift from “top” to “haughtiness”, and the compound would then be a tautology.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Plautus as its first author,[4] who in the Miles gloriosus tells someone to put on a manner “full of disdain, as if unwilling”.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is aversion for food or lack of appetite, as Horace's advice to scorn plain food only when toil has not driven out squeamishness, and the aversion that comes from satiety.[2][5] More generally it is repugnance or disgust, and fastīdiō esse is “to be repugnant”.[2] Of persons it is haughtiness, as Cicero's pride of the Campanians, disdain or scorn, as in Plautus, and a critical attitude, fastidiousness, as Cicero's “nice taste in listening”.[2]

Church Latin glosses it “weariness, monotony, aversion, loathing”.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a disdainful manner.[2][4]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of haughtiness and fastidiousness.[2][4]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace of squeamishness about food.[2][4]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of satiety.[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Aversion to food, squeamishness, lack of appetite.[2][1][5]
  2. Weariness from satiety.[2][6]
  3. Disgust, repugnance, loathing.[2][1]
  4. Haughtiness; disdain, scorn.[2][1]
  5. Fastidiousness, a critical taste.[2][1]

Word family

  • fastīdiō
  • fastīdiōsus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f 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 de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
Cite this entry

“Fastidium.” Etymologically, 19 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/fastidium. Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·