Etymologically
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mendicus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [mɛnˈdiː.kʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [menˈdiː.kus][1]

Forms

mendīcus (feminine mendīca, neuter mendīcum, superlative mendīcissimus); first/second-declension adjective[1] The superlative is mendīcissimus.[2][1]

Etymology

It is from Latin mendum (“fault, blemish”) + -īcus.[2][3][1][4] De Vaan traces mendum to Proto-Italic *m(e)ndo- and compares Old Irish mennar (“blemish”) and Hittite mant- (“something harmful”); a link with a root meaning “to think” he calls only a theoretical possibility.[5] Varro derived it from minus (“less”), one who has less than nothing, and Isidore explained it as one who has less to live on.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,[5] in whom someone is asked “what business have you touching us, you beggar?”, mendice homo.[2] Köbler dates it from Ennius.[4]

Semantic evolution

As an adjective it means in beggarly circumstances, destitute:[2] Cicero reports the Stoic paradox that the wise alone are rich, even if they are utterly destitute.[2][6] It also means beggarly or mean, as Martial's beggarly lunches and Cicero's paltry outfit of the law courts.[2][6] As a noun it is a beggar:[2][6] in Plautus someone would rather beat a beggar at begging, and in Terence it is a term of abuse.[6] Horace uses mendīcī of the begging priests of Cybele.[6] Church Latin has it both as needy and as a beggar.[7] Seneca has the adverb mendīcē, meanly.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of a beggar.[2][5][4]
  • 204–169 BC – Ennius.[4]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, of the destitute wise man.[2][4]
  • 40–102/103 AD – Martial, of beggarly lunches.[2][4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Destitute, needy, indigent.[2][6][1]
  2. Beggarly, mean, paltry.[2][6][1]

Noun

  1. A beggar, mendicant;[2][6][1] as a term of abuse, a ragamuffin.[6]

Word family

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 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. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson