obscenitas

Forms

obscēnitās f (genitive obscēnitātis); third declension^[1] It is also spelled obscaenitās and obscoenitās.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin obscēnus (“ill-omened; indecent”) + -tās.^[2][4][1] De Vaan takes the spelling ⟨obscaenus⟩ as the original form of the adjective and finds worth considering its analysis as “coming from the left side”, from Proto-Italic *skai-no- (“left, unpropitious”), the root of scaevus (“left”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from the Rhetorica ad Herennium on, which speaks of avoiding obscenity.^[4][2] Cicero has turpissima obscēnitās verbōrum, “most shameful obscenity of words”.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it meant indecency of language, and then indecent behaviour.^[2][3] Quintilian warns that obscenity must be absent not only from the words but from their meaning,^[3] and Suetonius tells of a Roman knight accused of indecency towards women.^[2][3] The TLL notes that among poets only Phaedrus uses it.^[4]

Later writers took it concretely: Pliny the Elder has the plural for obscene figures on drinking cups, and Arnobius uses it for the genitals and for the inauspiciousness of a bad omen.^[3] The English word obscenity came from it through French.^[6]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of obscene language.^[2][7]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses the plural for obscene figures.^[3][7]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses it of indecent conduct.^[2][7]
• 297–310 AD – Arnobius uses it for an ill omen and for the genitals.^[3][7]
• 1580s – English borrows it, through French, as obscenity.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Indecency, obscenity of language.^[2][3]
2. Indecent or lewd behaviour, unchastity.^[2][3]
3. (concrete) An obscene thing; the genitals;^[3] (plural) obscene figures.^[3]
4. (Late Latin) Inauspiciousness, the quality of a bad omen.^[3][1]

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de