mordicus
Dutch
Pronunciation
Audio (file)
Adverb
mordicus
- fiercely, persistently, intransigently
French
Pronunciation
Audio (file) Audio (CAN) (file)
Adverb
mordicus
- tenaciously
- obstinately
Further reading
- “mordicus”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Latin
Pronunciation
- (Classical) IPA(key): /ˈmor.di.kus/, [ˈmɔrd̪ɪkʊs̠]
- (Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈmor.di.kus/, [ˈmɔrd̪ikus]
Adjective
mordicus (feminine mordica, neuter mordicum); first/second-declension adjective
- biting
Declension
First/second-declension adjective.
| Number | Singular | Plural | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Case / Gender | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |
| Nominative | mordicus | mordica | mordicum | mordicī | mordicae | mordica | |
| Genitive | mordicī | mordicae | mordicī | mordicōrum | mordicārum | mordicōrum | |
| Dative | mordicō | mordicō | mordicīs | ||||
| Accusative | mordicum | mordicam | mordicum | mordicōs | mordicās | mordica | |
| Ablative | mordicō | mordicā | mordicō | mordicīs | |||
| Vocative | mordice | mordica | mordicum | mordicī | mordicae | mordica | |
Descendants
- Old Spanish: mórdago
- Spanish: muérdago (possibly)
Adverb
mordicus (not comparable)
- using the teeth
- 65 BCE – 8 BCE, Horace, Satires 1.8.27:
- pullam dēvellere mordicus agnam
- tear a black ewe-lamb to pieces with the teeth
- pullam dēvellere mordicus agnam
- tenaciously
- 45 BC, Cicero, De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum, volume 1, 28.78:
- Ita cum ea volunt retinere, quae superiori sententiae conveniunt, in Aristonem incidunt; cum id fugiunt, re eadem defendunt, quae Peripatetici, verba tenent mordicus.
- So, when they want to keep those things that fit with the previous statement, they agree with Aristo; when they avoid that, they defend themselves the same way as the Peripatetics, they maintain their words tenaciously.
-
References
- “mordicus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “mordicus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- mordicus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
- Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
- to hold fast in the teeth (also metaphorically, obstinately): mordicus tenere aliquid
- to hold fast in the teeth (also metaphorically, obstinately): mordicus tenere aliquid