infacetus

Forms

īnfacētus (feminine īnfacēta, neuter īnfacētum, comparative īnfacētior, superlative īnfacētissimus); first/second-declension adjective^[1] The OLD lists it as inficētus, with infacētus as a variant.^[2] Manuscripts of Plautus and Pliny the Elder have the spelling infic-.^[3]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“not”) + facētus (“elegant, witty”).^[2][3][1] The origin of facētus is doubtful: the ancients connected it with faciō (“to make, do”), and the OLD suggests a link with fax (“torch”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on,^[3] who has it in the Truculentus of a person without wit or tact.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Catullus uses it of people and of the age: one man is more boorish than the boorish countryside, and the poet calls his own times īnsapiēns et īnfacētum, “tasteless and witless”.^[3][5] Cicero often has it with a negative, so that nōn īnfacētus praises someone as rather witty,^[3][4] as of Gaius Canius, “not without wit and well enough read” (De officiis 3.58).^[3][4] Of things it means lacking wit, as of a lie that Cicero calls nōn īnfacētum and a saying in Suetonius;^[2][5] Martial uses it of a piece of music.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it in the Truculentus.^[3][6]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus calls the age īnsapiēns et īnfacētum.^[3][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero praises Gaius Canius as nec īnfacētus.^[3][6]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial uses it of music.^[2][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (of persons) Boorish, tactless; humourless, lacking wit.^[2][4]
2. (of sayings and the like) Not witty, dull;^[2][5] nōn īnfacētus, rather witty.^[2][5]

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes the two spellings: inficētus blames a tasteless, heavy person, while infacētus only says that someone is not remarkable for wit.^[7] Köbler also records a rare infacētus with an intensive prefix, “very elegant”, in the Latin Anthology.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 j Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper