foede

Forms

foedē (comparative foedius, superlative foedissimē)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin foedus¹ (“foul, hideous”) + -ē.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it in the Trinummus, of a wretch whom someone's attendants would have torn apart horribly, and in the Persa, of being a slave shamefully.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means in a way that offends the senses or feelings, horribly, foully, hideously: Pacuvius has remains foully mangled, Lucretius a storm suddenly turning foully dark, Virgil young men cruelly slain, and Livy victors who used their victory foully on the captured.^[2] Celsus uses it of an eye that sticks out unsightly.^[2] It also means so as to bring dishonour, shamefully, basely: Cicero writes that a cause is excellent but will be conducted most shamefully, and that others died basely while Cato died gloriously.^[2] Livy has a camp shamefully deserted and says that the higher a man had been raised, the more shamefully he fell.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of horrible and shameful treatment.^[2]
• 220–130 BC – Pacuvius of mangled remains.^[2]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of a dark storm.^[2][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of base deaths.^[2]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy.^[2]

Meanings

Adverb

1. Horribly, foully, hideously, cruelly.^[2][1]
2. Shamefully, basely, ignominiously.^[2][1]

Related words

• foedus¹

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de