calumnia

See also: calumniá and calúmnia

Latin

Alternative forms

• kalumnia

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *kalwomnjā, from unattested *kalwomnos (“deceiving, accusing”), which is equal to a (hypothetical) mediopassive participle of calvor.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /kaˈlum.ni.a/, [käˈɫ̪ʊmniä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /kaˈlum.ni.a/, [käˈlumniä]

Noun

calumnia f (genitive calumniae); first declension

1. A cunning device, trickery, artifice, sophistry, chicanery.
2. A pretence, evasion, subterfuge.
3. A misrepresentation, false statement, fallacy, cavil.
4. A false accusation or prosecution, malicious charge.

Declension

First-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	calumnia	calumniae
genitive	calumniae	calumniārum
dative	calumniae	calumniīs
accusative	calumniam	calumniās
ablative	calumniā	calumniīs
vocative	calumnia	calumniae

Derived terms

• calumnior
• calumniōsus

Related terms

• calumniātor
• calumniātrīx
• calumniōsē

Descendants

• → Catalan: calúmnia (learned)
• → Italian: calunnia (learned)
• → Middle French: calomnie (learned)
  • → English: calumny
  • French: calomnie
    • → Romanian: calomnie
• → Galician: calumnia (learned)
• Old French: chalonge, chalange, chalenge, calenge, calonge, calunge
  • → English: challenge
    • → French: challenge (orthographic)
    • → Japanese: チャレンジ (charenji)
    • → Russian: че́ллендж (čéllendž)
  • French: challenge (partially)
  • Norman: calenge
• Old Galician-Portuguese: cooyma (“reparations”)
  • Galician: coima
  • Portuguese: coima
• → Polish: kalumnia (learned)
• → Portuguese: calúnia (learned)
• Sicilian: calugna, calunnia
• Old Spanish: caloña
• → Spanish: calumnia (learned)

References

• De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “calvor”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 85
• “calumnia”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “calumnia”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• calumnia in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• calumnia in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • chicanery (specially of wrongfully accusing an innocent man): calumniae litium (Mil. 27. 74)
    
• “calumnia”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “calumnia”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

Portuguese

Noun

calumnia f (plural calumnias)

1. Pre-reform spelling (used until 1943 in Brazil and 1911 in Portugal) of calúnia.
   • 1878, Eça de Queirós, chapter V, in O Primo Basílio:

     Elle exclamou logo, vivamente: —Para evitar qualquer calumnia d'essas linguas damnadas!

     He soon exclaimed, vividly: "To avoid any calumny from these damned people!"

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kaˈlumnja/ [kaˈlũm.nja]

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -umnja
• Syllabification: ca‧lum‧nia

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin calumnia.

Noun

calumnia f (plural calumnias)

1. slander, calumny, aspersion, libel, defamation

Related terms

• calumniador
• calumniar
• calumnioso

 

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

calumnia

1. inflection of calumniar:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “calumnia”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10