fictus

Forms

fictus (feminine ficta, neuter fictum); first/second-declension adjective^[1][2] A homonymous fictus occurs as a variant of fīxus, the participle of fīgō.^[1][3]

Etymology

It is the participle of fingō (“to shape, invent”), used as an adjective.^[1][2] De Vaan traces ⟨fingō⟩ to Proto-Italic *finge/o- (“to knead, form”) and the nasal present Proto-Indo-European *dʰi-n-ǵʰ-, from the root of *dʰeyǵʰ- “wall”.^[4] Cognate with Oscan feíhúss (“walls”) and Sanskrit देह् (deh-, “to smear, plaster”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first example is Lucilius, of the poet's stories: “nothing true, all made up” (vērī nihil, omnia ficta).^[1][5]

Semantic evolution

Of stories and accounts it is untrue or invented, as Cicero's “a made-up and fictitious tale” and Virgil's “invented song”.^[1][2] Of feelings it is feigned, as Ovid's little maid weeping falsely, and of persons and their character insincere or deceitful, as Virgil's Sinon who “speaks with a false heart”; of witnesses it is lying.^[1]

Church Latin glosses it “deceitful, feigned”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius of made-up stories.^[1][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a fictitious tale.^[1][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of a deceitful heart.^[1][5]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of pretended weeping.^[1][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (of stories) Untrue, made up, fictitious.^[1][2]
2. (of feelings) Pretended, feigned, sham.^[1][6]
3. (of persons) Insincere, deceitful, (of witnesses) false, lying.^[1][6]

Related words

• fingō
• fictiō
• fictor
• figūra
• effigiēs
• English fiction

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson