Etymologically
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foeditas

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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]

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