Etymologically
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sordidatus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [sɔr.dɪˈdaː.tʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [sor.diˈdaː.tus][1]

Forms

sordidātus (feminine sordidāta, neuter sordidātum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin sordidus (“dirty, squalid”) + -ātus, formed like albātus (“dressed in white”) and ātrātus (“dressed in black”).[2][1][3] sordidus is made from sordēs (“dirt”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *swordi- (“dirt”) and Proto-Indo-European *suord-o/i-, comparing Proto-Germanic *swart- (“black”); he finds no further etymology.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it once, in the Asinaria: quamquam ego sum sordidatus, frugi tamen sum, “though I am shabbily dressed, I am an honest man”.[3][4] Terence has a woman sordidata et sordida, shabbily dressed and dirty.[3][5]

Semantic evolution

It is “meanly dressed”, of the poor and of slaves.[2][3] Its main use is for people in the dark, soiled clothes of mourning, worn by those who had lost relatives, by the accused and by suppliants seeking pity.[2][3] Cicero tells how the judges were moved when he raised up a grieving old man in mourning dress, and Livy has accused men, and Virginius bringing his daughter into the forum in shabby clothes.[3][2] Suetonius has a man going down to the rostra at dawn in mourning dress.[3] Sidonius uses the superlative of a foul, polluted conscience.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, “shabbily dressed but honest”.[3][4]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence, of a woman dirty and shabbily dressed.[3][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, of an old man in mourning dress before the judges.[2][3][5]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, of accused men in mourning.[3][5]
  • c. 431–486 AD – Sidonius, of a polluted conscience.[3][5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Meanly or shabbily dressed.[2][3][1]
  2. Wearing the soiled clothes of mourning, as the accused or suppliants did.[2][3]
  3. (figurative, Late Latin) Foul, polluted.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c 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