impudicitia

Forms

impudīcitia f (genitive impudīcitiae); first declension^[1] It is also spelled inpudīcitia.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin impudīcus (“shameless, unchaste”) + -itia, modelled on its opposite pudīcitia (“chastity”).^[2][1][4] impudīcus is the negative of pudīcus (“chaste”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler and Lewis & Short date it from Plautus, in the Amphitruo.^[5][3]

Semantic evolution

It is sexual impurity or unchastity, in Tacitus, Gellius, the Digest and Tertullian.^[2][3] It is often used of homosexual acts: Suetonius uses it so in the lives of Caesar and Augustus.^[2][3] The TLL records the plural in the Vulgate and in Rufinus' translation of Origen.^[4] Church Latin glosses it immodesty, impurity.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[3][5]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it.^[3][5]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius of homosexual acts.^[3][5]
• 390–406 AD – the Vulgate has the plural.^[4][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Unchastity, sexual impurity, lewdness, immodesty.^[2][3][6][1]
2. Homosexual acts; pederasty.^[2][3][1]

Related words

• impudīcus
• pudīcitia

References

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