Etymologically
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impudicus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪm.pʊˈdiː.kʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [im.puˈdiː.kus][1]

Forms

impudīcus (feminine impudīca, neuter impudīcum, superlative impudīcissimus); first/second-declension adjective[1] It is also spelled inp-.[2][3] Plautus has the comparative, and the superlative is frequent from Cicero on.[4]

Etymology

It is formed from the negative prefix in- (“not”) and pudīcus (“modest, chaste”).[2][4] Isidore derived it from pōdex (“anus”).[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first source is Plautus,[6] whose Alcmena says no man has touched her body to make her unchaste.[2]

Semantic evolution

Its main sense is “unchaste, immoral”, of women and of men, often of homosexual conduct;[2] Cicero cites “adulterer, unchaste, go-between” as a standard insult.[2] It is used of acts and words, and digitus impudīcus is the middle finger raised as an obscene gesture.[2] More widely it means “shameless, outrageous”, as in Plautus' “come on, shameless villain”.[2][3] Martial uses it of a foul smell.[2]

Church Latin glosses it “shameless, impudent”.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of an unchaste woman and a shameless man.[2][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of a common insult.[2][6]
  • 40–102/103 AD – Martial of a foul smell.[2][6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Unchaste, immoral, lewd;[2][1] digitus impudīcus, the middle finger.[2][1]
  2. Shameless, impudent.[2][3][1][7]
  3. Of a smell, foul.[2]

Word family

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 k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c 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. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson