Etymologically
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impius

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈɪm.pi.ʊs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈim.pi.us][1]

Forms

impius (feminine impia, neuter impium, comparative magis impius, superlative maximē impius or impiissimus or impīssimus or impientissimus, adverb impiē); first/second-declension adjective[1] It is also spelled inpius.[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin in- (“not”) + pius (“dutiful, pious”).[2][3][1] De Vaan derives pius from Proto-Italic *pwījo-, from Proto-Indo-European *puH-io- (“purifying”); the steps from that form to the Latin adjective are disputed.[4] Sabellic has the same adjective, as in Oscan piíhiúí (“pious”), and Umbrian pihatu (“to reconcile”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Livius Andronicus.[5] Plautus has impia est habitātiō, “it is an unholy dwelling”, and calls a man malum, lēgerupam, impium, periūrum, “wicked, a lawbreaker, impious, a perjurer”.[2]

Semantic evolution

Impius describes someone who disregards the duties owed to the gods, to parents and kin, and to one's country: “impious, undutiful, unpatriotic”, and so “wicked”.[2][3][1] Varro reports that a praetor who knowingly pronounced the formal words on a forbidden day was held to be impius and beyond expiation.[2] It is also used of things connected with impious persons or acts, “unholy, accursed”.[2][1]

Church Latin glosses it “wicked, ungodly, godless, irreverent”.[6] English impious comes from it in the 1590s.[7]

Timeline

  • 280/260–before 200 BC – Livius Andronicus uses it.[5]
  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: impia est habitātiō.[2][5]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of a praetor who cannot be absolved.[2][5]
  • 1590s – English impious.[7]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. impious, ungodly; undutiful, disloyal (to gods, kin or country).[2][3][1][6]
  2. wicked.[3][1][6]
  3. Unholy, accursed (of things).[2][1]

Word family

  • impietās
  • impiō
  • impiē

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  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 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
  7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com