indecentia

Forms

indecentia f (genitive indecentiae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin indecēns (“unbecoming”) + -ia.^[1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Vitruvius (c. 84–c. 25 BC) is the first to use it: he tells of people judged foolish for the fault of impropriety, placing statues where they did not belong.^[1][2][3]

Semantic evolution

Caelius Aurelianus uses it of the unpleasantness that a treatment brings the patient.^[4][2] In medieval Latin, as in Albertus Magnus, it meant something unseemly or indecent, ugliness, and filth.^[5]

English indecency (1580s) comes from it, first for outrageous conduct.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it for impropriety.^[1][3]
• 5th century AD – Caelius Aurelianus uses it.^[4][3]
• 13th century – Albertus Magnus uses it of what is unseemly.^[5][3]
• 1580s – English indecency is formed from it.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Want of propriety, unseemliness.^[1][4]
2. (Medieval Latin) Something indecent or improper.^[5]
3. (Medieval Latin) Ugliness; filth.^[5]

Related words

• English indecency

References

1. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com