verecundia

See also: verecúndia

Latin

Etymology

Etymology tree

Latin vereor

Proto-Indo-European *sekʷ-der.

Proto-Italic *sekʷondo-

Latin secundus

Latin -cundus

Latin verēcundus

Proto-Indo-European *-(i)yós

Proto-Italic *-ijos

Proto-Italic *-ios

Old Latin -ios

Latin -ius

Latin -ia

Latin verēcundia

From verēcundus (“feeling shame, shamefaced, bashful, shy, modest”) + -ia.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [wɛ.reːˈkʊn.di.a]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ve.reˈkun.di.a]

Noun

verēcundia f (genitive verēcundiae); first declension

1. knowing one's place, regarded as a virtue; coyness, modesty
2. shyness, bashfulness
3. shame, awe

   Synonym: pudor

Declension

First-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	verēcundia	verēcundiae
genitive	verēcundiae	verēcundiārum
dative	verēcundiae	verēcundiīs
accusative	verēcundiam	verēcundiās
ablative	verēcundiā	verēcundiīs
vocative	verēcundia	verēcundiae

Descendants

• Aragonese: vergüenya
• Corsican: vargogna
• Emilian: vergògna
• Franco-Provençal: vergogni
• Friulian: vergonze, vergonge
• Istriot: varguogna
• Italian: vergogna f
• Judeo-Italian: וֵירְגוֹנְייַה (werəgonəyyah /⁠vergogna⁠/)
• Old French: vergogne, vergoigne f
  • Bourguignon: vargôgne
  • French: vergogne f
• Old Leonese: vergunia
  • Asturian: vergoña, vergüeña, vergüenza
  • Mirandese: bergonha, bargonha
• Old Occitan: vergonça (Catalonia), vergonya (Catalonia), vergonha? f
  • Catalan: vergonya f
  • Occitan: vergonha f, vergonja (Auvergne, Languedoc), vergougno (Mistralian)
• Old Galician-Portuguese: vergonna, vergonça
  • Fala: vergonza
  • Galician: vergoña, vergonza
  • Portuguese: vergonha
• Piedmontese: vërgògna
• Romansh: verguogna
• Sardinian: bergugna, bregúngia, birgonza, bregunza, brigunza, frigonza, vilgonza, bilgonza
• Sicilian: virigogna, virivogna, virgogna, virvogna, vrigogna, briogna
• Old Spanish: verguença, verguenna
  • Extremaduran: velgüenza
  • Spanish: vergüenza, vergüeña
• Venetan: vargogna

Later borrowings:

• → Italian: verecondia
• → Middle French: verecundie
  • French: vérécondie
• → Portuguese: verecúndia
• → Spanish: verecundia

References

• “verecundia”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “verecundia”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "verecundia", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “verecundia”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1911), “vĕrēcŭndia”, in Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), page 703

Spanish

Etymology

Etymology tree

Latin vereor

Proto-Indo-European *sekʷ-der.

Proto-Italic *sekʷondo-

Latin secundus

Latin -cundus

Latin verēcundus

Proto-Indo-European *-(i)yós

Proto-Italic *-ijos

Proto-Italic *-ios

Old Latin -ios

Latin -ius

Latin -ia

Latin verēcundialbor.

Spanish verecundia

Learned borrowing from Latin verēcundia, from verēcundus (“feeling shame”), from vereor (“to respect, revere, fear”). Doublet of vergüenza and vergüeña, which were inherited.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /beɾeˈkundja/ [be.ɾeˈkũn̪.d̪ja]
• Rhymes: -undja
• Syllabification: ve‧re‧cun‧dia

Noun

verecundia f (plural verecundias)

1. (rare) synonym of vergüenza (“shame”) [from early 16th c.]

Further reading

• “verecundia”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025