perfidus

Forms

perfidus (feminine perfida, neuter perfidum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from per (“through”) and fidēs (“faith, trust”) with the suffix -us, compare pēiūrus (“perjured”).^[2][3][1] The TLL explains it from the phrase ⟨per fidem⟩ joined with verbs of deceiving, “to deceive by trading on trust”, which took a bad sense.^[3][1] De Vaan traces ⟨fidēs⟩ to Proto-Italic *fiþē- (“trust”) and Proto-Indo-European *bʰidʰ-eh₁- (“faith”), from the root of fīdō (“to trust”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Catullus as its first author.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It is of one who deliberately breaks faith, treacherous, false or deceitful.^[2][6] By transfer Virgil has a “treacherous sword” that breaks in mid-stroke, Propertius a slippery and treacherous road, and of words and actions it is marked by deceit, as Horace's “I have sworn no false oath”.^[2]

In Christian and medieval Latin it is unbelieving, heathen or heretical, and the masculine is used as a noun for an unbeliever.^[7]

Timeline

• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus.^[5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of a treacherous sword.^[2][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of a false oath.^[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Faithless, treacherous, false, deceitful, perfidious.^[2][1][6]
2. (of things) Treacherous, unsafe.^[2][1]
3. (Medieval Latin) Unbelieving, heathen, heretical, (as noun) an unbeliever.^[7]

Word family

• perfidia
• perfidē

Related words

• perfidiōsē
• perfidiōsus
• fidēs
• īnfīdus
• fīdus
• English perfidy

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes fīdus, trustworthy as a natural quality, from fidēlis, faithful as a moral quality.^[8]

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper