Etymologically
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infacetus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ĩː.faˈkeː.tʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [iɱ.faˈt͡ʃɛː.tus][1]

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