nequitia

Forms

nēquitia f (genitive nēquitiae); first declension^[1] A fifth-declension form nēquitiēs also occurs.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from nēquam (“worthless, bad”) with the suffix -itia.^[2][1][3] The TLL explains both forms of the noun as regular formations on a stem ⟨*nēquo-⟩.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus, Bacchides: Lycurgus could, it seems, be led into depravity here (ad nēquitiam addūcier).^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Its literal sense, bad quality, is very rare: Pliny speaks of the poor quality of a vinegar.^[3] Usually it is moral worthlessness, profligacy or depravity, and, more broadly, villainy: Cicero condemns himself for slackness and nēquitia in not acting against Catiline.^[2] Gellius discusses its meaning.^[2] In lighter use it is naughtiness or roguery, as Martial's pet sparrow's tricks.^[2] Wiktionary adds idleness, levity and prodigality.^[1]

Church Latin glosses it “malice, evil, wickedness, iniquity”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of depravity.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of culpable negligence.^[2][5]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial of a sparrow's naughtiness.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Bad quality.^[3]
2. Worthlessness, depravity, profligacy, vice; idleness.^[2][1]
3. villainy, wickedness.^[2][6]
4. Naughtiness, roguery.^[2][1]

Related words

• nēquam
• nēquiter

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson