mordicus

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Dutch

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Pronunciation

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  • Audio:(file)

Adverb

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mordicus

  1. fiercely, persistently, intransigently

French

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Pronunciation

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Adverb

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mordicus

  1. tenaciously
  2. obstinately

Further reading

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Latin

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Pronunciation

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Adjective

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

  1. biting

Declension

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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

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  • Old Spanish: mórdago

Adverb

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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

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  • 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