indecore
Forms
indecōrē (comparative indecōrius)[1][2]
Etymology
It is from Latin indecōrus (“unbecoming, unsightly”) + -ē.[1][3][4][5]
Earliest recorded meaning
It is first found in Plautus' Rudens, where a speaker complains that the gods have dealt this out indecōrē, inīquē, immodestē, “unbecomingly, unfairly, immoderately”.[1][2]
Semantic evolution
Its main sense was moral, “in an unseemly way, unbecomingly”: Cicero speaks of taking care not to do anything unbecomingly or effeminately,[1][2] Curtius speaks of the insignia of power thrown away unbecomingly,[1][3] and Quintilian and Fronto use it of style, Fronto with the comparative indecōrius.[1][3]
In a physical sense it meant “in an unsightly way”: Celsus uses it of a navel that sticks out unsightly,[1][3] and Tacitus says of captured boats fitted with many-coloured cloaks for sails that they were helped along haud indecōrē, “not unattractively”.[1][2]
Timeline
- c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of the gods' unbecoming treatment of a speaker.[1][4]
- 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of unseemly or effeminate conduct.[1][4]
- 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of an unsightly protruding navel.[1][4]
- 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses haud indecōrē of boats with cloaks for sails.[1][4]
Meanings
Adverb
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
- ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
- ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
- ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
- ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.