perfidious

English

WOTD – 13 October 2011

Etymology

From Latin perfidiōsus (“treacherous”), from perfidia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɚˈfɪdi.əs/
• IPA^(key): /pəˈfɪdi.əs/

  • Audio (UK):

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Adjective

perfidious (comparative more perfidious, superlative most perfidious)

1. Of, pertaining to, or representing perfidy; disloyal to what should command one's fidelity or allegiance. [from late 16th c.]
   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:

     TRINCULO (speaking about Caliban): By this light, a most perfidious and drunken / monster: when his god's asleep, he'll rob his bottle.

   • 1851, Oliver Goldsmith, “ch. 26”, in William C. Taylor, editor, Dr. Goldsmith's History of Rome:

     The perfidious Ricimer soon became dissatisfied with Anthe'mius, and raised the standard of revolt.

   • 1905, Andrew Lang, “ch. 14”, in John Knox and the Reformation:

     [S]he knew Huntly for the ambitious traitor he was, a man peculiarly perfidious and self-seeking.

   • 2005 June 21, Robert Hughes, “Art: The Velocipede of Modernism”, in Time‎^[1]:

     When the Nazis branded Feininger a "degenerate artist" in 1937, he left 54 paintings for safekeeping with a Bauhaus friend named Hermann Klumpp. After the war, and for the rest of Feininger's life, the perfidious Klumpp refused to give them back.

Synonyms

• (disloyal): disloyal, traitorous, treacherous, unfaithful

Derived terms

• perfidiously
• perfidiousness
• unperfidious

Related terms

• perfidy

Translations

pertaining to perfidy

• Bulgarian: коварен (bg) (kovaren), вероломен (bg) (verolomen), предателски (bg) (predatelski)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 背信弃义的

• Dutch: verraderlijk (nl), perfide (nl), doortrapt (nl)
• Finnish: petollinen (fi)
• French: perfide (fr)
• German: perfide (de)
• Greek: παράσπονδος (el) (paráspondos)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hungarian: hitszegő (hu)
• Ido: perfida (io)
• Latin: perfidus
• Neapolitan: nfame
• Plautdietsch: ontru
• Portuguese: pérfido (pt), desleal (pt)
• Russian: вероло́мный (ru) (verolómnyj), преда́тельский (ru) (predátelʹskij), кова́рный (ru) (kovárnyj)
• Spanish: pérfido (es)
• Turkish: hain (tr), kalleş (tr)

Further reading

• Perfidious Albion on Wikipedia.Wikipedia