Etymologically
Log in

vilitas

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 19 October 2026 at 19:56. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈwiː.lɪ.taːs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈviː.li.tas][1]

Forms

vīlitās f (genitive vīlitātis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin vīlis (“cheap”) + -tās.[2][1] De Vaan traces vīlis to Proto-Italic *wesli- and Proto-Indo-European *u̯es-li- (“what can be bought”), a verbal adjective whose root appears in Hittite u̯āš- (“to buy”); the expected ⟨vēlis⟩ was raised to ⟨vīlis⟩, perhaps under the influence of the preceding /w/.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus.[3][4] The OLD's first example is in Terence's Phormio: “was this the cheapness that cut down our income?”[2]

Semantic evolution

It is first lowness of price: Cicero describes a sudden fall in the price of grain after scarcity.[5][2] From cheapness it passed to worthlessness and low esteem, as in Seneca, and to baseness of character or lowness of rank, as when Curtius speaks of the cheapness of a body made common.[2] Pliny the Elder uses it of the ordinary quality that gave a kind of plum its name, “asses' plums”.[2] Church Latin glosses it baseness.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.[3][4]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence of low prices.[2][4]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of the cheapness of grain.[5][4]
  • 1st century AD – Curtius of baseness.[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Lowness of price, cheapness; worthlessness.[2][5][1]
  2. Low esteem, contempt.[2][1]
  3. Baseness, meanness; lowness of rank.[2][6][1]
  4. Common or ordinary quality.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c 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