dies infaustus

English

Etymology

From Latin dies (“day”) infaustus (“unlucky”).

Noun

dies infaustus (plural dies infausti)

1. Unlucky day.
   • 1709, William Reeves, “The Octavius of Marcus Minucius Felix”, in The Apologies of Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and Minucius Felix ..., page 56:

     Here it was that the Gauls gave the Romans such a fatal Overthrow, that Dies Alliensis went proverbially afterwards for Dies infaustus, an unlucky or black Day.

   • 1720, Daniel Defoe, Serious Reflections of Robinson Crusoe, W. Taylor, page 219:

     This is the Day, that remarkable Day, several other Scriptures mention periodical Times, dies Infaustus, the Prudent shall keep Silence in that Time; for it is an evil Time.

   • 1826, Baron Alexandre Étienne G. de Théis, translated by M. A. P., Travels of Polycletes, in Letters from Rome, page 238:

     Besides these distinctions, there are some days, called Dies Infausti, on which all business is suspended.

   • 1883, Captain William Harwar Parker, Recollections of a Naval Officer, 1841-1865, Charles Scribner's Sons, page 7:

     To my extreme surprise we had no dinner in the gun-room that day, and no supper! The table was not even set! It seems that during this dies infaustus kind of a time the midshipmen lived upon the bum-boat and skirmished on the berth-deck for a living; but I knew nothing about that, and was too proud and bashful to make any inquiries, and, strange to say, no one thought of giving me information.

   • 1965, Marguerite Young, Miss MacIntosh, My Darling, Charles Scribner's Sons, page 715:

     Once, turning another corner—it must have been his dies infaustus—Mr. Spitzer passed down a long, dim street of cigar store Indians, and he could almost have thought he had come, in his wanderings, to an Indian stockade—but this would not have been so bad if suddenly, when he went to strike a match on a wooden cheek, the Indian had not lifted his tomahawk—and someone had cried out, as all the wooden shutters banged—Indian massacre!