# 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: /ˈske.lus/, [ˈs̠kɛɫ̪ʊs̠]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈʃe.lus/, [ˈʃɛːlus]

### Noun

scelus n (genitive sceleris); third declension
* 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.”
* 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.”)
* criminal, villain, felon

#### Declension

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