Etymologically
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noxiosus

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Forms

noxiōsus (feminine noxiōsa, neuter noxiōsum, superlative noxiōsissimus); first/second-declension adjective[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin noxia (“wrongdoing, harm”) + -ōsus.[1][3][4] De Vaan explains noxia as the feminine of noxius (“guilty, harmful”), and derives the whole group from noxa (“harm, punishment”), beside the verb noceō (“to hurt, damage”), which he traces to Proto-Italic *nokeje- (“to cause death”) and Proto-Indo-European *noḱ-eie- (“to make disappear, cause death”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short call it post-Augustan.[3] It is found in Seneca and in Petronius,[1][6] where the narrator writes curavi diligentius noxiosissimum corpus (“I took more careful care of my most guilty body”).[1][7]

Semantic evolution

Seneca uses it in the sense “harmful”: in the De beneficiis the earth lies with all its weight on metals as on harmful things, and in the De vita beata he speaks of a bad and harmful servitude.[1][4] A reading in the De clementia gives the superlative of a most harmful animal.[3][4][2] In one of Seneca's letters some manuscripts have animi perditi noxiosique (“lost and guilty minds”), which Georges considers spurious.[1][3][4]

Timeline

  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of harmful things.[1][4][6]
  • before 66 AD – Petronius uses the superlative of a guilty body.[1][6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. guilty of wrongdoing, sinful.[1][3][4]
  2. harmful, injurious.[1][3][2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  5. ^ 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier