pravitas

Forms

prāvitās f (genitive prāvitātis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin prāvus (“crooked, bad”) + -tās.^[2][1][3] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of prāvus, for which he has no etymology.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Terence, who has it once: a father asks what perversity it is that his own fault should harm his son.^[4][5][2] The TLL notes that after Terence it is found only in prose, from Cicero and Varro on.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The literal sense is crookedness: Columella warns that a crooked prop shapes the vine to its own likeness.^[2] Cicero uses it of bodily deformity and of a distortion of the mouth in speaking.^[2][6] More often it is a bad quality in anything, and above all moral depravity or wrong-headedness: Cicero speaks of a depravity of mind, Varro of the champions of an error.^[2] Biblical manuscripts spell it ⟨prave-⟩ and ⟨prabi-⟩.^[3] Church Latin glosses it wickedness, guilt and evil.^[7]

Timeline

• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of a perverse attitude.^[2][4][5]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of error in judgement.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of bodily deformity and of a depraved mind.^[2][6][5]
• 1st century AD – Columella of a crooked vine prop.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Crookedness; of the body, distortion, deformity.^[2][6][1]
2. A bad or faulty quality in anything; of the mind, perversity.^[2]
3. Moral depravity, wickedness.^[2][6][7][1]
4. Wrong-headedness, error of judgement.^[2]

Related words

• prāvus
• dēprāvō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson