Etymologically
Log in

pudens

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 19 October 2026 at 18:16. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈpʊ.dẽːs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈpuː.dens][1]

Forms

pudēns (genitive pudentis, comparative pudentior, superlative pudentissimus, adverb pudenter); third-declension one-termination adjective[1]

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the present participle from Latin pudeō (“to be ashamed”).[2][3] De Vaan traces pudeō to Proto-Italic *pud-ē- (“to be ashamed or shy”), but its further origin is uncertain: Walde and Hofmann linked paviō (“to strike”), Ernout and Meillet hesitantly a root “to press, hurry”, and a link with paveō (“to be frightened”) is also conceivable.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first source is Terence,[5] who speaks of a modest mind.[3]

Semantic evolution

It means having a proper sense of what one's position requires, decent, and especially showing proper restraint, modest or bashful.[2] Cicero writes that it is hard for a modest man to ask for something great, and speaks of a decent and honest son;[2][3] in Lucretius a lover calls a girl who cannot speak modest, and Horace speaks of being “wrongly modest”.[2] Of words and actions it is modest or restrained, as the Rhetorica ad Herennium says of a metaphor and Catullus of a request.[2] Church Latin glosses it “shamefaced, bashful, modest”.[6]

Timeline

  • 190–159 BC – Terence of a modest mind.[3][5]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius of a girl called modest.[2][5]
  • 86/82 BC – The Rhetorica ad Herennium of a modest metaphor.[2][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of a modest man and a decent son.[2][3][5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Decent, behaving properly.[2]
  2. Modest, bashful, shamefaced; of words and actions, restrained.[2][3][6][1]
  3. Chaste.[1]

Word family

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson