perfidus

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Latin

Etymology

From per (“through, along”) +‎ fidēs (“faith; trust”) +‎ -us (adjectival suffix), based on the phrase per fidem dēcipere[1]

Pronunciation

Adjective

perfidus (feminine perfida, neuter perfidum); first/second-declension adjective

  1. that breaks his promise, false, faithless, dishonest, disloyal, treacherous, perfidious, deceitful, traitorous
    • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 4.305–306:
      “Dissimulāre etiam spērāstī, perfide, tantum
      posse nefās, tacitusque meā dēcēdere terrā?”
      “Had you even hoped to be able to hide so great a crime – you faithless ! – and to slip away from my land unnoticed?”
      (Dido had believed that she and Aeneas shared a commitment, and yet he and the Trojans are preparing to leave Carthage. Translators Shadi Bartsch, Robert Fagles, Stanley Lombardo, Sarah Ruden, and David West supply the noun “traitor”. Frederick Ahl (Oxford, 2007) translates “perfide” as “you perfidious cheat”, and footnotes the irony that ancient Romans reputed the Carthaginians as being perfidious.)
  2. (by extension) treacherous, unsafe, dangerous
    Synonym: īnfīdus

Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

singular plural
masculine feminine neuter masculine feminine neuter
nominative perfidus perfida perfidum perfidī perfidae perfida
genitive perfidī perfidae perfidī perfidōrum perfidārum perfidōrum
dative perfidō perfidae perfidō perfidīs
accusative perfidum perfidam perfidum perfidōs perfidās perfida
ablative perfidō perfidā perfidō perfidīs
vocative perfide perfida perfidum perfidī perfidae perfida

Antonyms

Derived terms

Descendants

References

  • “perfidus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • “perfidus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • perfidus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
  1. ^ Walde, Alois, Hofmann, Johann Baptist (1938) “fidēs”, in Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), 3rd edition, volume I, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, page 494
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