subdolus Latin · revision 32518

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=compound|attested=c. 250–184 BC, Plautus|origins=itc-pro *dolo-}}

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''subdolus''' (feminine subdola, neuter subdolum, adverb subdolē); first/second-declension adjective^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|sub|dolus|t1=under|t2=deceit]].^(Wiktionary)^(Köbler 2010)^(de Vaan 2008) De Vaan traces [[m|la|dolus]] to [[itc-pro|*dolo-|t=trick]] and compares [[grc|δόλος|tr=dólos|t=bait, trick]]; against the view that Latin borrowed it from Greek, he notes that an inherited *dolh₁-o- "pain, what pains", beside [[m|la|doleō|t=to feel pain]], cannot be dismissed.^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Plautus has it first: in the ''Casina'' a bride is told to remember to be sly with her husband night and day.^(OLD 2012)^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It describes people who are sly or deceitful, and their words and manner, as Plautus' sly treachery, Caesar's crafty speech and Ovid's deceitful tongue.^(OLD 2012) Propertius uses it of the treacherous bow of the Parthian who shoots from a turned horse.^(OLD 2012) Lewis & Short render it "somewhat crafty", and find it mostly ante-classical and post-Augustan.^(Lewis & Short 1879) Church Latin glosses it sly, cunning, crafty, deceitful.^(Stelten 1995)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a sly bride and of treachery.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 50 BC – Caesar of a crafty speech.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 57/46–12 BC – Propertius of the Parthian bow.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # [[m|en|sly|alt=Sly]], [[m|en|crafty]], [[m|en|deceitful]], treacherous; of words and manner, deceptive.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Stelten 1995)^(Wiktionary)

+ # Of weapons or natural things, treacherous.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[dolus]]

+ * [[dolosus|alt=dolōsus]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}