inhonestus

Forms

inhonestus (feminine inhonesta, neuter inhonestum, comparative inhonestior, superlative inhonestissimus, adverb inhonestē); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- + honestus (“honourable”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan derives honestus from ⟨*hones-to-⟩, made from honōs (“honour”), which can only go back to a form with ⟨*ǵʰon-⟩ or ⟨*gʰon-⟩, with no further etymology known.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first examples in the OLD are in Plautus, in a string of insults, “you filthy, disreputable, lawless …”, and of a shameful trade.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Of persons it means of ill repute, dishonourable, as in Cicero and Horace's man made disreputable by an unknown mother, and of actions or occupations disgraceful, as Sallust's shameful life.^[2][5] Virgil uses it of a shameful wound, the cut-off nose of Deiphobus.^[2] Terence and Vitruvius use it in the sense ugly, unprepossessing, as of a eunuch.^[2] The TLL notes the comparative from Valerius Maximus and the superlative from Cicero.^[3] Church Latin glosses it “dishonourable, disgraceful”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a disreputable man and a shameful trade.^[2][7]
• 190–159 BC – Terence of an ugly eunuch.^[2][7]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of a shameful wound.^[2][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of ill repute, dishonourable; of actions, disgraceful, shameful.^[2][5][1]
2. Ugly, unprepossessing in appearance.^[2]

Related words

• honestus
• honōs

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de