Etymologically
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perfidia

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [pɛrˈfɪ.di.a][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [perˈfiː.di.a][1]

Forms

perfidia f (genitive perfidiae); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin perfidus (“faithless”) + -ia.[2][1][3] The adjective is per- with fidēs (“faith, trust”), as in the phrase ⟨per fidem dēcipere⟩, “to deceive through trust”.[3] De Vaan traces ⟨fidēs⟩ to Proto-Indo-European *bʰidʰ-eh₁- (“faith”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeydʰ- (“to trust”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it first in Plautus: in the Amphitruo Jupiter has said that the Romans conquer by courage, not by intrigue or perfidia.[5]

Semantic evolution

It is faithlessness, treachery, falsehood, and in the plural acts of treachery: Cicero speaks of being deceived by it and of crime and treachery together.[2][6][5] The TLL finds it much rarer than perfidus, in poetry once in Catullus, three times in Propertius and four times in Ovid, and in prose from Varro on.[5]

Church Latin glosses it “faithlessness”.[7] Medieval Latin uses it for unbelief and heresy.[8] English perfidy (1590s) comes from it through French.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of treachery.[5][9]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro, first in prose.[5][9]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of deceit and crime.[5][9]
  • 1590s – English perfidy.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Faithlessness, treachery, perfidy;[2][1][7] (plural) acts of treachery.[2][1][7]
  2. (Medieval Latin) Unbelief, heresy.[8]

Word family

  • perfidiōsus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  9. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de