maculosus

Forms

maculōsus (feminine maculōsa, neuter maculōsum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin macula (“spot, stain”) + -ōsus.^[2][1][3] De Vaan tentatively traces the noun to Proto-Italic *smatlo- and Proto-Indo-European *smh₁-tlo- (“wiping”), comparing Ancient Greek σμάω (smáō, “to wipe clean”), but finds the sense "smearing" for a stain possible rather than compelling.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus,^[3][4] in whose Bacchides a hide would become as spotted as a nurse's cloak.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It means covered with stains or blotches:^[2] Cicero mentions clothes of Pompey's that were few and stained, and Ovid sand spotted with blood.^[5] Of animals it means spotted or striped, as Virgil's spotted lynx hide, and Pliny the Elder uses it of veined marble and of the spotted moon.^[2][5] Petronius applies it to a style full of highly coloured phrases.^[2] Figuratively it is stained with disgrace: Cicero writes of disreputable senators, Tacitus of a man foul and stained with greed and lust, and Horace of an abominable crime.^[2][5] Stelten glosses it "spotted".^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a spotted hide.^[2][3][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of stained clothes and disreputable senators.^[2][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of a spotted lynx hide.^[2][5]
• before 66 AD – Petronius of a florid style.^[2]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus of a man stained with vice.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Covered with stains or blotches; stained, blotted.^[2][5][1]
2. Spotted, speckled, striped, mottled;^[2][5][1][6] (of minerals) veined.^[2][5][1][6]
3. (of style) Full of highly coloured phrases.^[2]
4. Stained with disgrace, disreputable, foul.^[2][5][1]

Related words

• macula
• maculō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson