Etymologically
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impudens

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈɪm.pʊ.dẽːs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈim.pu.dens][1]

Forms

impudēns (genitive impudentis, comparative impudentior, superlative impudentissimus, adverb impudenter); third-declension one-termination adjective[1] It is also spelled inpudēns.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is formed from the negative in- (“not”) and pudēns (“modest, bashful”), the present participle of pudeō (“to make ashamed”).[2][4][1][5] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *pudē- (“to be ashamed”) but finds no certain further origin: Walde and Hofmann compare paviō (“to strike”), and Ernout and Meillet, hesitantly, a root ⟨*speud-⟩ “to press, hurry”.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus is its first author,[5] whose Aulularia has “you dared to come to me with that talk, you shameless man!”.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is shameless, impudent or brazen, of persons, of words and acts, as Plautus' “that letter is shameless from the start”, and of the face, as Terence's “that shameless face of yours”.[2][3] Cicero sets pudēns against impudēns as probus against improbus.[3] It is also lacking in decency or immodest, as Cicero's letter on obscene words, whose talk is “veiled in words, more indecent in substance”.[2]

Köbler finds it in the Carmina Burana and in Hrotsvitha.[5] English impudent comes from it, from the late 14th century.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a shameless man and a shameless letter.[2][5]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence of a shameless face.[2][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of indecent talk.[2][5]
  • late 14th century – English impudent.[7]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Shameless, impudent, brazen.[2][3][1]
  2. Indecent, immodest.[2][1]

Word family

  • pudēns
  • pudor
  • impudīcus
  • English impudent

Usage notes

Lewis and Short compare impudīcus and inverēcundus.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com