Etymology and origin of the Latin word insincerus
- Confidence
- Established
- Formation
- Derivation
- First attested
- 70–19 BC Virgil, Georgics More words from the 1st century BC
- Ultimate origin
- Latin sincērus
Etymology tree
From the same root
Forms
īnsincērus (feminine īnsincēra, neuter īnsincērum); first/second-declension adjective[1]
Etymology
It is formed from Latin in- (“not”) + sincērus (“pure, sound”), with the negative prefix.[2][3][4][1]
Earliest recorded meaning
Virgil uses it first, in the Georgics, of the corrupt blood of slaughtered bullocks from which bees were said to be born.[3][5][6]
Semantic evolution
The literal sense is impure, putrid or spoiled,[2][7] as in Virgil's blood;[3] Servius glosses it there as “corrupted”.[3] Prudentius has acies insincera of dim, imperfect eyesight.[7][3]
Transferred, it meant not genuine or dishonest: Gellius has an insincerus philosophus,[7][5] and Fronto uses it of crooked and insincere things.[3] Christian writers used it of impure spirits (Cyprian, Minucius Felix),[5] of an insincere offering (Ambrose)[7][5] and of those who corrupt the word of God (Ambrose).[3] L&S calls it poetic and post-Augustan.[7]
Timeline
- 70–19 BC – Virgil, in the Georgics, calls the bullocks' blood insincerus.[3][8]
- 100–170 AD – Fronto uses it of things that are crooked and not genuine.[3][8]
- c. 165 AD – Gellius speaks of an insincerus philosophus.[7][8]
- 3rd century AD – Minucius Felix uses it of impure spirits.[5][8]
- c. 340–397 AD – Ambrose speaks of an insincere offering.[7][5][8]
- 348/49–c. 413 AD – Prudentius writes of insincera acies, dim sight.[7][3][8]
Meanings
Adjective
- Impure, corrupt, putrid.[2][7][3]
- Imperfect, dim (of sight).[7]
- (figurative) Not genuine, dishonest, insincere.[2][7]
- (Late Latin) Unclean, of spirits.[5]
Related words
References
- ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
- ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
- ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
- ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry
“Insincerus.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/la/insincerus. Accessed 8 Nov. 2026.
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