mordicus

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Adverb

mordicus

1. fiercely, persistently, intransigently

French

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (Canada):

  (file)

Adverb

mordicus

1. tenaciously
2. obstinately

Further reading

• “mordicus”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈmor.di.kus/, [ˈmɔrd̪ɪkʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈmor.di.kus/, [ˈmɔrd̪ikus]

Adjective

mordicus (feminine mordica, neuter mordicum); first/second-declension adjective

1. 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)

1. 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

2. tenaciously
   • 45 BCE, Cicero, De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum, volume 1, section 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^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to hold fast in the teeth (also metaphorically, obstinately): mordicus tenere aliquid