mendacium

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Latin[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From mendāc- (“lying”, “untruthful”, oblique stem of mendāx) +‎ -ium (nominal suffix).

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

mendācium n (genitive mendāciī or mendācī); second declension

  1. A lie, untruth, falsehood, fiction.
    Synonym: commentum
    • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 2.261–262:
      ‘addis’ ait ‘culpae mendācia,’ Phoebus ‘et audēs
      fātidicum verbīs fallere velle deum?’
      ‘‘So saying, [do] you add lies to your fault?’’ says Phoebus. ‘‘And [do] you dare
      wish to deceive the god of prophecy with words?’’
    • 405 CE, Jerome, Vulgate Proverbs.10.4:
      quī nītitur mendāciīs hic pāscit ventōs: idem autem ipse sequitur avēs volantēs
      He that trusteth to lies feedeth the winds: and the same runneth after birds that fly away.
      (Douay-Rheims trans., Challoner rev.; 1752 CE)
  2. An illusion, counterfeit.

Declension[edit]

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case Singular Plural
Nominative mendācium mendācia
Genitive mendāciī
mendācī1 		mendāciōrum
Dative mendāciō mendāciīs
Accusative mendācium mendācia
Ablative mendāciō mendāciīs
Vocative mendācium mendācia

1Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Quotations[edit]

  • "Ego numquam pronuntiare mendacium sed ego sum homo indomitus." Braveheart.

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

  • Italian: mendacio

References[edit]

  • “mendacium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • “mendacium”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • mendacium in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
  • Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
    • to tell lies: mendacium dicere
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