squalor

Forms

squālor m (genitive squālōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin squāleō (“to be rough, be caked with dirt”) + -or.^[2][1] De Vaan lists it with ⟨squāleō⟩ and squāma (“scale”) under squālus, for which he finds no etymology; the initial ⟨squ-⟩ suggests it is not an inherited word.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[3][4] in whose Cistellaria it is only fair that squalor should go with filthy fortunes.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Lucretius uses it for roughness of surface, opposed to smoothness.^[2][5] Its usual sense is dirt and filth of person and dress, with unkempt hair and beard, and in particular the neglected dress worn in mourning or by defendants: Cicero asks whether Sicily's squalor and tears will move a man.^[2] Figuratively it is the roughness of an uncouth style in Quintilian, untidy growth in Pliny, and the desolation of a barren land in Curtius.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “roughness, squalor, filthiness, neglect”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of squalor.^[2][4]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of rough surfaces.^[2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of the dress of mourning.^[2][4]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian of an uncouth style.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Roughness of surface, stiffness.^[2][5][1]
2. Dirt, filth, squalor; neglected dress as a sign of mourning; uncouthness of style; untidy growth.^[2][1][6]
3. Desolation, barrenness of land.^[2]

Related words

• squāleō
• squālidus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson