mendosus Latin · revision 34259

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=81–43 BC, Cicero|origins=la mendum}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [mɛnˈdoː.sʊs]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [menˈdɔː.s̬us]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''mendōsus''' (feminine mendōsa, neuter mendōsum, superlative mendōsissimus); first/second-declension adjective^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|mendum|-ōsus|t1=fault, blemish|t2=full of]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(TLL) De Vaan reconstructs [[itc-pro|*m(e)ndo-]] for [[m|la|mendum]]; if [[sga|mind|t=sign, mark]] is cognate, beside [[m|sga|mennar|t=blemish]], it is an Italo-Celtic word, and he mentions only as theoretical possibilities a derivation from [[ine-pro|*mn-|t=to think]].^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Köbler records it first in Cicero,^(Köbler 2010) who writes in ''De oratore'' that both to lack a part and to have too much is ''mendosum'', “faulty”.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Its basic sense is full of faults or blemishes: Ovid uses it of the face of a horse with blemishes, and Pliny the Younger of a faulty copy of a will.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913) Cicero complains that funeral eulogies have made Roman history ''mendosior'', more full of errors.^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913) Horace and Ovid apply it to character and morals with faults.^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913) Cicero also uses it actively, of a slave who always made a mistake at the same place in the name Verrucius.^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913) By confusion with [[mendāx]] it comes to mean lying, deceitful, as in Apuleius' ''mendoso risu'', “with a false laugh”.^(OLD 2012) Augustine complains of being worn out by very faulty manuscripts.^(Georges 1913) Medieval writers in Britain use it of faulty copies of texts, of people prone to falsehood, and in a glossary of what is stained or dirty;^(DMLBS) Niermeyer gives the medieval sense fallacious, deceptive.^(Niermeyer 1976)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of what is faulty and of a clerk who makes mistakes.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 65–8 BC – Horace applies it to a character with a few faults.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a blemished face and of faulty morals.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it in the sense lying, deceitful.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it of faulty manuscripts.^(Georges 1913)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * Medieval Latin – It is used of faulty copies of texts and of untruthful people.^(DMLBS)^(Niermeyer 1976)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # Full of [[m|en|fault|alt=faults]] or [[m|en|blemish|alt=blemishes]], faulty; of statements and texts, incorrect, [[m|en|erroneous]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # Of character, full of moral faults.^(Georges 1913)

+ # Making mistakes, prone to error.^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913)

+ # [[m|en|lying|alt=Lying]], [[m|en|deceitful]] (by confusion with [[mendāx]]).^(OLD 2012)^(Niermeyer 1976)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' Stained, dirty.^(DMLBS)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[mendositas]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ Persius uses the neuter as an adverb: ''mendosum tinniat'', “ring false”, of brass under gold.^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}