Etymologically
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pathicus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈpa.tʰɪ.kʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈpaː.ti.kus][1]

Forms

pathicus (feminine pathica, neuter pathicum); first/second-declension adjective[1] Inscriptions write it without ⟨h⟩, as paticus.[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek παθικός (pathikós, “passive”),[4][5][1] from πάσχω (páskhō, “to suffer, undergo”).[3][6] The TLL notes that the Greek word does not seem to occur in Greek authors, apart from a glossary that renders morbōsus with it.[2] Köbler connects the Greek verb with Proto-Indo-European *kʷentʰ- (“to suffer”).[6] A Latin gloss explains the word as derived from patior (“to suffer”).[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Catullus,[6] as an insult: Aurēlī pathice et cinaede Fūrī (16.2).[5][2]

Semantic evolution

It was used of men who submitted to anal intercourse, mostly as abuse;[2][5] it appears in inscriptions at Pompeii, on gaming tokens and on a sling bullet from Perusia.[2] Juvenal speaks of a mirror as the gear of the pathicus Otho.[5][2] In the Priapea it is used of lascivious girls,[5] and Martial transfers it to obscene books, with the superlative pathicissimī libellī.[5][3] It was also used as a noun.[2]

Timeline

  • 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it as an insult.[5][6]
  • 1st century AD – The Priapea use it of women.[5][6]
  • AD 40–102/103 – Martial calls obscene books pathicissimī.[5][6]
  • c. 67–127 AD – Juvenal uses it of Otho.[5][6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. (of a man) Submitting to anal intercourse, pathic.[5][7]
  2. (of women) Lascivious.[5][2]
  3. (of books) Obscene.[5][3]

Noun

  1. A man who submits to anal intercourse, a catamite.[2][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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  4. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press