perversitas

Forms

perversitās f (genitive perversitātis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin perversus (“turned the wrong way, perverse”) + -tās, an abstract noun.^[2][1][3] That adjective is the past participle of pervertō (“to overturn, corrupt”), a compound of per- and vertō (“to turn”).^[3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it only in prose, from Cicero on, who uses it nine times, first in his letters.^[3] In the Orator he asks what great wrong-headedness there is in people.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

Cicero also writes of the perversity of opinions, and Quintilian of a most tiresome perversity of diligence.^[4] Augustus used it once, according to Suetonius, of perverse character.^[3][6] Christian writers took it up from Tertullian on, and Augustine has more than 260 examples.^[3] Stelten gives “perversity, perverse inclination”, and in medieval Latin it often meant false doctrine, error or heresy: Bede writes of the perversity of heresy.^[7][8][9] Duns Scotus also uses it of a reversal of the right order.^[9]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it in his letters and treatises.^[3][10]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of misplaced diligence.^[4][10]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius quotes Augustus using it.^[3][6][10]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it, the first of many Christian writers.^[3][10]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it more than 260 times.^[3][10]

Meanings

Noun

1. Wrong-headedness, unreasonableness, perversity.^[2][4]
2. Perverse character; depravity.^[5][6]
3. (Medieval Latin) False doctrine, error, heresy.^[8][9]
4. (Medieval Latin) Reversal of the right order.^[9]

Related words

• perversus
• pervertō

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ 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 d Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de