foeditas

Forms

foeditās f (genitive foeditātis); third declension^[1] The common pronunciation was fēditās.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin foedus¹ (“foul, ugly”) + -tās.^[3][2][4] De Vaan explains foedus¹ after Nussbaum as an adjective in ⟨-idus⟩ from a root meaning to be afraid, Proto-Indo-European *bʰiH-, if its first meaning was “frightful”; cognates of that root include Sanskrit बिभाय (bibháya, “is afraid”) and Lithuanian bijóti (“to fear”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero uses it in the De natura deorum of beasts that drive off their pursuers with the unbearable foulness of their smell,^[3][6] and in the second Philippic of a man's shameful disgrace.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It is foulness or repulsiveness, and in particular ugliness: Pliny the Elder has the foul disease of which Sulla died and the ugliness of scars,^[6] and Columella warns that an ugly overseer's wife will put her partner off.^[3] Livy uses it of foul weather worse than in the Alps.^[3] Morally it is disgrace, shame or infamy.^[3][6] The TLL notes the common pronunciation fēditās.^[2] Stelten glosses it “filth”.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of a foul smell and of disgrace.^[3][6][4]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, of foul weather.^[3][4]
• 1st century AD – Columella, of ugliness.^[3][4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder, of scars and disease.^[6][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Foulness, filthiness, repulsiveness; of weather, foulness.^[3][6][1][7]
2. Ugliness, hideousness, deformity.^[3][6][1]
3. Disgrace, shame, infamy.^[3][6]

Related words

• foedus¹
• foedō

References

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