scelus

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

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈske.lus/, [ˈs̠kɛɫ̪ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈʃe.lus/, [ˈʃɛːlus]

Noun

scelus n (genitive sceleris); third declension

1. 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 [for] Laocoön, they said, since he had violated the sacred wood [of the horse] with [his] spearhead [when he] hurled the profane weapon at [its] body.”

2. 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 [your] father-in-law having been killed, seize [his] kingdom, and stain [both] our hands with [my] 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 [you] have killed [your] father-in-law,” or perhaps understood as an imperative: “Kill [your] father-in-law.”)

3. criminal, villain, felon

Declension

Third-declension noun (neuter, imparisyllabic non-i-stem).

	singular	plural
nominative	scelus	scelera
genitive	sceleris	scelerum
dative	scelerī	sceleribus
accusative	scelus	scelera
ablative	scelere	sceleribus
vocative	scelus	scelera

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

• scelerō
  • scelerātus (see there for further descendants)
• scelestus
• sceliō

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