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turpis (adj)

Definition: foul, loathsome, ugly, deformed; shameful, disgraceful, base; indecent, obscene

Sententia: Olim, erat anaticulus* qui omnibus esse turpis dictus est. Tum, postquam adolesceverat, erat cycnus, pulcherrimus omnium.

Once, there was a duckling who was said to be ugly by all. Then, after he had grown up, he was a swan, the most beautiful of all.

*this is a diminutive form of the word anas, meaning duck

Now, having journeyed to and from VJCL convention, I am back to bring you a Latin word! Plurimas gratias Meghani ago, quod LVD-um in mea absentia fecit. This word was indeed featured on the VJCL vocabulary test, and was one which I had never learned, or had learned but had forgotten. Thus, it is the LVD for today. It is found rather frequently in Catullus--poem 68a on the syllabus, and poems 25, 42, 61, and 91 off syllabus. Ovid uses it in his Amores book 1 poem 12 on the syllabus and many times off syllabus in both the Amores and the Metamorphoses. Finally, it is found once in Vergil's Aeneid, book 4 (so I indeed ought to have known it...). Perhaps it can be remembered by its derivative, turpitude, meaning baseness or disgracefulness. [Calculus tangent (see LVD #114 and TJ Latin's t-shirt for this year)! so, if f(x) == turpis, f ' (x) = turpitude. In order to get turpis from turpitude, you must take the integral of turpitude! ]