Etymologically
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sordes

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈsɔr.deːs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈsɔr.des][1]

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

  • 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