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impuritas

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word impuritas

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
81–43 BC Cicero
Ultimate origin
Latin impūrus
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin pūrus
French pur
Italian puro
Spanish puro
Latin impūrus
English impure
Latin impūritās
English impurity
From the same root
Latin pūrē ← pūrus
Latin pūrgō ← pūrus
Latin pūritās ← pūrus
Latin puriter ← pūrus
Latin pūrō ← pūrus

Forms

impūritās f (genitive impūritātis); third declension[1] It is also written inpūritās.[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin impūrus (“unclean, foul”) + -tās.[2][4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Cicero (81–43 BC),[4][5] who in the Philippics accuses his opponent of daily submitting to every impurity (omnes impuritates) in a shameless house.[2]

Semantic evolution

In Cicero the word is moral foulness, often sexual,[2][3] and the TLL glosses it with lewdness and filth.[4] Tertullian uses it among Christian writers,[4] and the Vulgate has it for ritual uncleanness in Leviticus.[3]

In Medieval Latin it meant physical uncleanness and pollution, dishonesty, depravity, and especially fornication.[6] Ecclesiastical Latin uses it of uncleanness and pollution.[7]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of moral foulness.[2][5]
  • c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it.[4][5]
  • 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it of ritual uncleanness.[3][5]
  • c. 790 – The Libri Carolini set impuritas against puritas.[6][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Foulness, moral impurity, lewdness.[2][3][4]
  2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Ritual uncleanness, pollution.[3][7]
  3. (Medieval Latin) Dishonesty; depravity; fornication.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f 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 c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson

Borrowed into

Cite this entry

“Impuritas.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/la/impuritas. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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