pudor

Forms

pudor m (genitive pudōris); third declension^[1] A fourth-century inscription has podor.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin pudeō + -or, from the verb “to be ashamed” (impersonal ⟨pudet⟩ “it shames”).^[3][4][2][1] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *pudē- (“to be ashamed, shy”) but finds no secure etymology: Walde–Hofmann compared paviō “to strike”, Ernout and Meillet hesitantly Proto-Indo-European *spewd- (“to press, hurry”), which is not otherwise found without ⟨s-⟩, and paveō “to be frightened” is another possible connection.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[5] who has ubi pudendum est, ibi eōs dēserit pudor, “where there is cause for shame, their shame deserts them”.^[3] Köbler cites it from Ennius.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Pudor is a feeling of shame at a particular act, and more generally the sense of what is seemly, “decency, restraint, modesty” (the general idea, while pudīcitia is chastity in particular).^[3][4][1] It also means one's honour or self-respect, then a cause of shame, “disgrace”, and in exclamations prō pudor! “for shame!”.^[3][1] Wiktionary also gives “a blush” and the personified Shame or Modesty.^[1]

Church Latin glosses it “purity, modesty, decency, shame, disgrace”.^[7] In Medieval Latin it can mean an insult or affront.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: ubi pudendum est, ibi eōs dēserit pudor;^[3][6] sī in tē pudor adsit, nōn mē appellēs, “if you had any decency you would not call on me”.^[3][6]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of a humiliation, “not without disgrace”.^[3][6]
• 65–8 BC – Horace: ō pudor! ō magna Karthāgō, “oh shame! oh great Carthage”.^[3][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. shame, a feeling of shame.^[3][4][1][7]
2. Sense of propriety, decency, modesty, restraint.^[3][4][1][7]
3. Honour, self-respect.^[3]
4. A source of shame, disgrace, humiliation.^[3][1][7]
5. prō pudor!, ō pudor!, for shame!^[3]
6. A blush.^[1]
7. (Medieval Latin) An insult, affront.^[8]

Word family

• pudōrātus
• pudōricolor
• impudēns
• impudenter
• impudentia
• impudīcitia
• pudendum
• pudendus
• pudenter
• pudēns
• pudibundus
• pudīcitia

Related words

• pudēfactus
• pudescit
• pudet
• pudibilis
• pudīcē
• pudīcus
• pudeō
• repudium

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill