The corpus record — Latin

mendax

mendax · adj

given to lying, mendacious; subst., a liar

Generated live from the audited Latin corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

Where it lives

Apotheosis 4 · 5.4/10k
Agamemnon 2 · 3.6/10k
Epistulae 3 · 3.03/10k
De Pallio 1 · 2.92/10k
Cathemerina 2 · 2.72/10k
de Bello Gothico 1 · 2.48/10k
Carmina 3 · 2.26/10k
Saturae 1 · 2.21/10k
De Corona 1 · 2.06/10k
Oedipus 1 · 1.69/10k
Psychomachia 1 · 1.67/10k
De idolatria 1 · 1.45/10k

Densest 12 of 40 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. mendax — Lewis & Short

mendax, dācis, adj.mentior,

I given to lying, mendacious; subst., a liar.

I Lit.: mendacem esse adversus aliquem, Plaut. Poen. 1, 2, 188: cum mendaci homini, ne verum quidem dicenti, credere soleamus, Cic. Div. 2, 71, 146: Carthaginienses fraudulenti et mendaces, id. Agr. 2, 35, 95: aretalogus, Juv. 15, 16.—As subst.: mendax, dācis, m., a liar.—Prov.: mendacem memorem esse oportet, a liar should have a good memory, Quint. 4, 2, 91.— Comp.: Parthis mendacior, Hor. Ep 2, 1, 112.—Sup.: mendacissimus, the greatest liar, Plaut. Rud. 3, 4, 48.—With gen.: si hujus rei me mendacem esse inveneris, Plaut. As. 5, 2, 4.—With dat.: saepe fui mendax pro te mihi, Ov. H. 2, 11.—With in and acc.: in parentem, Hor. C. 3, 11, 35; for which adversum, Plaut. Poen. 1, 2, 188.— With in and abl.: in tenui farragine, Pers. 5, 77.—

II Transf., of inanim, and abstr. things, lying, false, deceptive; feigned, fictitious, counterfeit, not real, etc. (mostly poet.): mendacia visa, Cic. Div. 2, 62, 127: speculum, Ov. Tr. 3, 7, 38: fundus, that does not yield the expected fruits, Hor. C. 3, 1, 30: damnum, Ov. A. A. 1, 431: infamia, Hor. Ep. 1, 16, 39: os, Tib. 3, 6, 35: pennae, Ov. M. 10, 159: quidquid Graecia mendax audet in historia, Juv. 10, 174.—Hence, adv.: mendācĭter, falsely, mendaciously (post-class.): praedicare, Sol. 1, 87.— Sup.: mendacissime dicere, Aug. Mor. Eccl. 1, 17.

2. mendax — Walde–Hofmann

mendax, -äcis „lügnerisch“ (seit Plaut., ebenso mendäcium, -i n. „Lüge“ [Dem. -iuneulum Cic. mendäcitäs 1. „Lügenhaftigkeit“ Tert. [nach veritäs, vgl. falläcitäs), mendäciloguus „Lügen redend* seit Pit. [vgl. falsiloguus und weuboAöyog; mendaciloguens Itala]), mentiör, -itus sum, -iri „lügen, erdichten, fälschlich vorgeben, nachahmen"; vlt. (Svennung Wortst. 97) „ähnlich sein“ (seit Plt., rom,, ebenso .mentitiö … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. mendax, p. 974]

Where it came from

Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. mendax (scan p. 420; entry #6740).
Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. mendax (scan pp. 974-976; entry #1748). Root candidates: *men-, *mendh-.

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Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.