squalor

English

Etymology

From the Latin squālor.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈskwɒlə(ɹ)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈskwɑlɚ/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒlə(ɹ)
• Homophone: squaller (in accents with the cot-caught merger)

Noun

squalor (usually uncountable, plural squalors)

1. Filthiness and degradation, as from neglect or poverty

   Synonyms: squalidness, foulness, filthiness, squalidity

   • 2013, Car Seat Headrest, We Can't Afford (Your Depression Anymore):

     We’re living in squalor
     That’s the name of this house
     This house is called squalor by all
     There’s a door broken somewhere but I never can remember quite where.

   • 1860, Isaac Taylor, Ultimate Civilization: And other essays:

     The heterogenous indigent multitude, everywhere wearing nearly the same aspect of squalor.

   • 1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, “Chapter XII”, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC:

     bring this sort of squalor among the upper classes

Derived terms

• senile squalor syndrome

Translations

squalidness

• Bulgarian: мръсотия (bg) f (mrǎsotija), мизерия (bg) f (mizerija)
• Catalan: misèria (ca) f, indigència f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 骯髒／肮脏 (zh) (āngzāng)

• Danish: snusk, smuds
• Dutch: weerzinwekkende vuiligheid, miserabele omstandigheden
• Finnish: surkeus (fi), kurjuus (fi)
• French: saleté repoussante, conditions misérables
• Galician: rafa (gl) f, laceira (gl) f, pioca f, caiñeza f, gafura (gl) f
• German: Schmutz (de), Elend (de) n, Vernachlässigung (de) f, Ärmlichkeit (de) f, Dreck (de) m, Verschmutzung (de) f, Unreinheit (de) f, Verderbtheit (de) f, Verkommenheit f
• Hungarian: nyomor (hu), mocsok (hu), nélkülözés (hu)
• Latin: squālor m
• Maori: hawa
• Polish: plugastwo n, brud (pl) m
• Portuguese: esqualidez (pt) f, esqualor m
• Russian: грязь (ru) f (grjazʹ) (dirt), убо́жество (ru) n (ubóžestvo)
• Spanish: miseria (es), inmundicia f
• Swedish: misär (sv) c, elände (sv) n, smuts (sv) n, lort (sv) c, snusk (sv) n

References

• “squalor”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “squalor”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Latin

Etymology

From squālus (“dirty, unkempt”) +‎ -or.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈskʷaː.lor/, [ˈs̠kʷäːɫ̪ɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈskwa.lor/, [ˈskwäːlor]

Noun

squālor m (genitive squālōris); third declension

1. stiffness, roughness
2. dirtiness, filthiness, foulness, squalor

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	squālor	squālōrēs
Genitive	squālōris	squālōrum
Dative	squālōrī	squālōribus
Accusative	squālōrem	squālōrēs
Ablative	squālōre	squālōribus
Vocative	squālor	squālōrēs

Derived terms

• squāleō

References

• “squalor”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “squalor”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• squalor in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette