Etymologically
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mordicus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈmɔr.dɪ.kʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈmɔr.di.kus][1]

Forms

mordicus (not comparable)[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin mordeō (“to bite”).[2][1][3] The OLD compares its ending with that of secus2 (“otherwise”) and varicus, and Wiktionary notes that no other adverb in ⟨-icus⟩ is attested.[2][1] De Vaan traces the verb to Proto-Italic *mord-eje- and Proto-Indo-European *h2mord-(e)ie- (“to crush, bite”), an iterative present with o-grade, since biting is typically a repeated action.[4] Cognate with Ancient Greek ἀμέρδω (amérdō, “to deprive of”) and Old English smeortan (“to hurt”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Naevius,[4][5] whose comedy has utinam nāsum abstulisset mordicus!, “if only he had bitten off the nose!”[2]

Semantic evolution

It means with the teeth, by biting:[2][6] Plautus has a threat to bite someone's nose off, Varro a horse that killed a man with its teeth, and Horace a lamb torn apart with the teeth.[2][6] Lucilius has the proverb that it is better to snatch gold out of a fire with one's teeth than food out of the mud, and Petronius a man ready to pick a farthing out of dung with his teeth.[2]

Figuratively it meant tenaciously, grimly: Cicero writes that the leading aristocrats cling with their teeth to the name of the best men but lack the reality, and of people who cling with their teeth to words.[2] Grammarians list it among the adverbs ending in ⟨-us⟩.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 235–200 BC – Naevius uses it of biting off a nose.[2][5]
  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it in threats of biting.[2][5]
  • c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses it in a proverb about snatching gold from a fire.[2][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it figuratively for clinging to names and words.[2][5]
  • before 66 AD – Petronius uses it of picking a coin out of dung.[2][5]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. With the teeth, by biting.[2][6]
  2. (figurative) Tenaciously, grimly.[2][6]

Word family

  • mordicitus

Usage notes

The OLD records a separate adjective mordicus, “biting”, in Hyginus' Fabulae, apparently made by misunderstanding the adverb; the text of the passage is uncertain.[2][6]

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 k l m n o 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 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 e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press