sordes

Forms

sordēs f (genitive sordis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *swordi- (“dirt”) or *swordo- (“dirty”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *suord-o/i-.^[2] If the word was originally an i-stem, it may continue an abstract noun meaning “dirt(iness)”, as Nussbaum suggested, and this might be compared with Proto-Germanic *swart- (“black”); de Vaan knows no further Indo-European etymology.^[2] Wiktionary adds that Latin suāsum (“a dirty grey colour”) may come from the same root, but the sounds make this uncertain.^[1]

Cognate with Old Norse svart, Old English sweart and Old High German swarz, all meaning “black”.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on.^[2] In the Poenulus a character asks whether eyes that were full of dirt now shine; the OLD reads the rare genitive plural sordērum in that line.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The plural was more common than the singular, usually with no difference in sense.^[3] Besides dirt in general it named bodily secretions such as earwax (Cicero) and the impurities in a metal (Pliny the Elder), and figuratively a stain on someone's name.^[3]

In the plural it meant the dark, soiled clothes worn by mourners and suppliants, and put on by defendants in court to win pity.^[3] The dirt of poverty led to senses of low birth and base condition, and of the dregs of the population: Cicero speaks of the sordem urbis et faecem, “the scum and dregs of the city”.^[3] Applied to character it meant meanness and stinginess, and then greed, moral baseness, and in Tacitus the commonness of an old-fashioned style.^[3]

In Christian Latin it meant defilement,^[4] and British medieval writers used it for the stain of sin, for a bribe, and for the drab clothes of mourners and penitents.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of dirt in the eyes.^[3][2][6]
• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of the squalor of poverty.^[3][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of mourners' clothes, of earwax and of meanness.^[3][6]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of greed.^[3][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of the impurities in gold.^[3][6]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of a mean, commonplace style.^[3][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Dirt, filth.^[3][7]
2. A bodily secretion; an impurity in a substance.^[3]
3. (figurative) A blot, a stain.^[3]
4. (plural) The dark clothes of mourners, suppliants and defendants.^[3][7]
5. Squalor, poverty; lowness of condition; the dregs of a population.^[3]
6. Meanness, stinginess; greed.^[3][1]
7. Moral baseness.^[3]
8. Meanness or commonness of language.^[3]
9. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Defilement, the stain of sin.^[4][5]
10. (Medieval Latin) A bribe.^[5]

Word family

• sordeō
• sorditūdō
• sordidus
• sordidulus
• sordidātus
• sordulentus

Related words

• suāsum
• English swart

Usage notes

Döderlein separates the words for wet dirt (lutum² the mud of roads, līmus¹ the mud of rivers, caenum the mire of a marsh) from those for dry dirt: sordēs, squālor, paedor and situs;^[8] sordēs is the opposite of splendor and suggests poverty, stinginess and vulgarity.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
5. ^ a b c 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
6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper