pudeo

Forms

pudeō (present infinitive pudēre, perfect active puduī or puditus sum, supine puditum); second conjugation, optionally semi-deponent^[1] Pliny the Elder has the future participle puditūrum.^[2] Deponent forms occur in the perfect, and Petronius has pudeātur.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *pud-ē- (“to be ashamed, shy”), whose further origin is uncertain.^[4][1] Walde and Hofmann, and the OLD, connect paviō (“to beat”), with a first sense such as “to beat back”;^[4][2] Ernout and Meillet hesitantly suggest Proto-Indo-European *spewd- (“to press, hurry”), which de Vaan finds more attractive in meaning, though that root is not otherwise found without its initial /s/.^[4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[4] who has pol, sī aliud nīl sit, tuī mē, uxor, pudet, “by Pollux, wife, if nothing else, I am ashamed before you”, and personally ita nunc pudeō atque ita nunc paveō, “so ashamed am I now, so afraid”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Pudet is mostly impersonal: mē pudet with a genitive of the cause is “I am ashamed of”, and with a genitive of a person “I am ashamed before” someone (Terence: factī pudet, “I am ashamed of what I did”, Cicero: ut mē nōn sōlum pigeat stultitiae meae sed etiam pudeat, “so that I am not only sorry for my folly but ashamed of it”).^[2][3][1] With a personal subject pudeō is “to feel shame, be ashamed”, and rarely “to put to shame”.^[2][1]

Church Latin glosses it “to be ashamed”, and the impersonal “it causes shame”.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: tuī mē, uxor, pudet.^[2][6]
• 190–159 BC – Terence: factī pudet.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero: nōn sōlum pigeat … sed etiam pudeat.^[2][6]
• before 66 AD – Petronius has the deponent pudeātur.^[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. (impersonal) mē pudet: I am ashamed (of something, before someone).^[2][3][1][5]
2. To feel shame, be ashamed.^[2][1][5]
3. To make ashamed, put to shame.^[2][1]

Word family

• dēpudet
• dispudet
• impudēns
• pudefaciō
• pudibilis
• pudibundus
• pudīcus
• pudor
• prōpudiānus
• prōpudiōsus
• prōpudium
• pudēfactus

Related words

• pudendus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d 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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de