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infaustus

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word infaustus

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
70–19 BC, Virgil
Ultimate origin
Latin (faveō)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin faustus
Latin infaustus

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ĩːˈfau̯s.tʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [iɱˈfau̯s.tus][1]

Forms

īnfaustus (feminine īnfausta, neuter īnfaustum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- + faustus (“favourable, lucky”).[2][1][3] De Vaan derives faustus from ⟨*foustus⟩, ⟨*faves-to-⟩, made from faveō (“to be favourable”), which goes back to Proto-Italic *faw-ē-; for the root he reports several proposals, including Lubotsky's and Kortlandt's Proto-Indo-European *bʰh₂u̯-eh₁- (“to be favourable to”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Virgil,[5] whose Trojan women cry “burn the ill-starred ships”.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

It means luckless or ill-starred, and bringing ill fortune, inauspicious.[2][6] Of omens it is ill-boding, as Virgil's ill-omened name of the Allia, and it is applied to the underworld.[2] Lewis & Short note that it is poetic and post-Augustan;[6] Tacitus has it of an unlucky day and an ill-fated camp.[6] Church Latin keeps the sense unfortunate, unpropitious.[7]

Timeline

  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of ill-starred ships and the ill-omened name of the Allia.[2][5]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of ill-fated battles.[2][5]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus of an unlucky day.[6][5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Luckless, ill-starred, unfortunate.[2][6][1]
  2. Bringing ill fortune, inauspicious; of omens, ill-boding.[2][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
Cite this entry

“Infaustus.” Etymologically, 19 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/infaustus. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

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