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scelus. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
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Latin
Etymology
From Proto-Italic *skelos, from Proto-Indo-European *skelos (“curve, bending”), from *(s)kel- (“to curve, bend”). This etymology presupposes a semantic shift from "crooked" to "wicked, bad". Cognate with Proto-Germanic *skelhaz (whence Dutch scheel, German scheel), Ancient Greek σκέλος (skélos), σκολιός (skoliós).
Pronunciation
Noun
scelus n (genitive sceleris); third declension
- an evil deed; a wicked, heinous, or impious action
- Synonyms: dēlictum, peccātum, facinus, flāgitium, iniūria, commissum, maleficium
- Cui prōdest scelus, is fēcit ― He who benefits from the crime, commits it.
29 BCE – 19 BCE,
Virgil,
Aeneid 2.229–231:
- “ et scelus expendisse merentem
Lāocoönta ferunt, sacrum quī cuspide rōbur
laeserit, et tergō scelerātam intorserit hastam.”- “ and the evil deed merited punishment Laocoön, they said, since he had violated the sacred wood with spearhead hurled the profane weapon at body.”
- wickedness, villainy
8 CE,
Ovid,
Fasti 6.595–596:
- rēgia rēs scelus est. socerō cape rēgna necātō
et nostrās patriō sanguine tinge manūs.- “Villainy is a deed worthy for kings. With father-in-law having been killed, seize kingdom, and stain our hands with father’s blood!”
(Tullia Minor goads her husband, Lucius Tarquinius, to murder her father, King Servius Tullius. The ablative absolute “socerō necātō” could be translated as “when have killed father-in-law,” or perhaps understood as an imperative: “Kill father-in-law.”)
- criminal, villain, felon
Declension
Third-declension noun (neuter, imparisyllabic non-i-stem).
When it refers to a criminal (someone who commits crimes), scelus becomes a masculine or feminine noun, with accusative singular scelerem and nominative, accusative, and vocative plurals scelerēs.
Derived terms
References
- “scelus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “scelus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- scelus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
- to be tainted with vice: vitiis, sceleribus contaminari or se contaminare (Off. 3. 8. 37)
- to be vicious, criminal: vitiis, sceleribus inquinatum, contaminatum, obrutum esse
- to meditate crime: scelera moliri (Att. 7. 11)
- to commit crime: scelus facere, committere
- to commit a crime and so make oneself liable to the consequences of it: scelere se devincire, se obstringere, astringi
- to commit a crime and so make oneself liable to the consequences of it: scelus (in se) concipere, suscipere
- to commit a crime against some one: scelus edere in aliquem (Sest. 26. 58)
- to heap crime on crime: scelus scelere cumulare (Catil. 1. 6. 14)
- to expiate a crime by punishment: scelus supplicio expiare
- a guilty conscience: conscientia mala or peccatorum, culpae, sceleris, delicti
- to be tormented by remorse: (mens scelerum furiis agitatur)
- to take a person in the act: deprehendere aliquem in manifesto scelere
- De Vaan, Michiel (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN