Fromob-(prefix meaning ‘against; towards’) +noxa(“harm, hurt, injury; crime, fault, offence”) +-ius(suffix formingadjectives). Ultimately fromProto-Indo-European*neḱ-(“to disappear; to perish”).
obnoxius (feminineobnoxia,neuterobnoxium,adverbobnoxiē);first/second-declension adjective
- (Old Latin, chiefly Late Latin)punishable,liable,guilty, referring to:
- (rare) the injuredparty
- (with dative, ablative or genitive) afault
c. 42BCE,
Sallust,
Bellum Catilinae52.21:
- […] animus in cōnsulundō līber neque dēlictō neque lubīdinīobnoxius.
- […] a spirit free in counsel,guilty of nether crime nor passion.
- c. 550CE,Cassiodorus,Historia ecclesiastica tripartita 6.14.5 inPatrologia Latina (volume 69),Jacques-Paul Migne (editor),Paris 1865,column 1040:
- Proptereā ergō in suspiciōnem et odium veniēns pāgānōrum, quoniam pūblicē sacrificantēs inspiciēns stābat, et ingemiscēns ōrābat atque clāmābat, nē ūllus Chrīstiānōrum huiusmodī errōre tenērēturobnoxius.
- He came to be suspected and hated by Pagans, because he stood looking at those sacrificing in public while praying and shouting in a groaning manner, so that none of the Christians would be heldguilty of this sort of error.
- apunishment
412CE – 426CE,
Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis,
City of God13.3:
- Quāpropter fatendum est prīmōs quidem hominēs ita fuisse īnstitūtōs, ut, sī nōn peccāssent, nūllum mortis experīrentur genus; sed eōsdem prīmōs peccātōrēs ita fuisse morte multātōs, ut etiam quidquid dē eōrum stirpe esset exortum eādem poenā tenērēturobnoxium.
- Therefore it must be said that the first humans were taught that, were they not to have sinned, they wouldn't have experienced any kind of death, and that the first sinners were rewarded with death so that whatever is born of their kind be heldliable to the same punishment.
- obliged,indebted
165BCE,
Publius Terentius Afer,
Hecyra3.1.22–23:
- Tum uxōrīobnoxius sum: ita ōlim suō mē ingeniō pertulit,
tot meās iniūriās quae numquam in ūllō patefēcit locō.- Then I amindebted to my wife: such has she, in her good-naturedness, put up with me
and with all my injustices which she's never made known anywhere.
c. 303CE,
Arnobius,
Against the Pagans6.2.1:
- […] existimāmus nōs eōs […] nōn vōtōrum dēbitīs habēreobnoxiōs et obligātōs […]
- […] we reckon them […] not to hold menobliged and indebted for the vows they owe […]
- subject to someone, under one'sauthority
- 30BCE,Horace,Satires2.7.6–8:
- Pars hominum vitiīs gaudet cōnstanter et urget
prōpositum; pars multa natat, modo rēcta capessēns,
interdum prāvīsobnoxia.- A portion of men constantly takes joy in vice and stays true to
their purpose; a great portion wavers, now engaging in rightful things,
other timessubject to sin.
59 BC–AD 17,
Titus Livius,
Ab urbe condita libri 9.5.8:
- Aliī aliōs intuērī, contemplārī arma mox trādenda et inermēs futūrās dextrāsobnoxiaque corpora hostī.
- They looked at one another, contemplated the weapons soon to be given up and the right hands soon to be unarmed and the bodiessubject to the enemy.
- susceptible todanger,misfortune, orweakness,vulnerable
- Synonyms:dēbilis,fractus,aeger,tenuis,inops,languidus
- Antonyms:praevalēns,fortis,potis,potēns,validus,strēnuus,compos
- liable oraddicted to afault orfailing,guilty of it
- Synonyms:noxius,reus,cōnscius
- Antonyms:īnsōns,castus,innocēns,innoxius
- c. 140CE,Marcus Cornelius Fronto,Epistles4.1.3:
- Invidia perniciōsum inter hominēs malum maximēque internecīvum, sibi aliīsque pariterobnoxium.
- Envy is a pernicious and most deadly evil along men, just asharmful to oneself and to others.
First/second-declension adjective.
- “obnoxius”, inCharlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879)A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “obnoxius”, inCharlton T. Lewis (1891)An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- obnoxius inGaffiot, Félix (1934)Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894)Latin Phrase-Book[1], London:Macmillan and Co.
- to be subject to some one, under some one's dominion:subiectum esse, obnoxium esse imperio ordicioni alicuius (not simplyalicui)
- “obnoxius” in volume 9, part 2, column 124, line 25 in theThesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL Open Access), Berlin (formerly Leipzig): De Gruyter (formerly Teubner), 1900–present
