Etymologically
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infaustus

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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