"caitiff" meaning in All languages combined

See caitiff on Wiktionary

Adjective [English]

IPA: /ˈkeɪtɪf/ Forms: more caitiff [comparative], most caitiff [superlative]
Etymology: From Middle English caitif, from Anglo-Norman caitif (“captive”), akin to Old French chaitif (French chétif) and Middle Dutch keytyf, from a Vulgar Latin *cactīvus alteration via Gaulish influence from Latin captīvus (“captive”); compare Italian cattivo (“bad, wicked”). Doublet of captive. Etymology templates: {{root|en|ine-pro|*keh₂p-}}, {{inh|en|enm|caitif}} Middle English caitif, {{der|en|xno|caitif||captive}} Anglo-Norman caitif (“captive”), {{cog|fro|chaitif}} Old French chaitif, {{cog|fr|chétif}} French chétif, {{cog|dum|keytyf}} Middle Dutch keytyf, {{der|en|VL.|-}} Vulgar Latin, {{der|en|la|captīvus||captive}} Latin captīvus (“captive”), {{cog|it|cattivo||bad, wicked}} Italian cattivo (“bad, wicked”), {{doublet|en|captive}} Doublet of captive Head templates: {{en-adj}} caitiff (comparative more caitiff, superlative most caitiff)
  1. Especially despicable; cowardly
    Sense id: en-caitiff-en-adj-XZat0J7P

Noun [English]

IPA: /ˈkeɪtɪf/ Forms: caitiffs [plural]
Etymology: From Middle English caitif, from Anglo-Norman caitif (“captive”), akin to Old French chaitif (French chétif) and Middle Dutch keytyf, from a Vulgar Latin *cactīvus alteration via Gaulish influence from Latin captīvus (“captive”); compare Italian cattivo (“bad, wicked”). Doublet of captive. Etymology templates: {{root|en|ine-pro|*keh₂p-}}, {{inh|en|enm|caitif}} Middle English caitif, {{der|en|xno|caitif||captive}} Anglo-Norman caitif (“captive”), {{cog|fro|chaitif}} Old French chaitif, {{cog|fr|chétif}} French chétif, {{cog|dum|keytyf}} Middle Dutch keytyf, {{der|en|VL.|-}} Vulgar Latin, {{der|en|la|captīvus||captive}} Latin captīvus (“captive”), {{cog|it|cattivo||bad, wicked}} Italian cattivo (“bad, wicked”), {{doublet|en|captive}} Doublet of captive Head templates: {{en-noun}} caitiff (plural caitiffs)
  1. A base or despicable person; a wretch.
    Sense id: en-caitiff-en-noun-UXKC0U0Z
  2. (obsolete) A captive or prisoner, particularly a galley slave. Tags: obsolete Categories (topical): People
    Sense id: en-caitiff-en-noun-JduNBDFX Disambiguation of People: 19 23 33 26 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with topic categories using raw markup Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 2 7 88 3 Disambiguation of English entries with topic categories using raw markup: 7 9 78 6
  3. (archaic) A villain, a coward or wretch. Tags: archaic
    Sense id: en-caitiff-en-noun-gBbrxtiZ

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for caitiff meaning in All languages combined (6.5kB)

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          "type": "quotation"
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          "text": "Is Honor gone into his grave?\nHath Faith become a caitiff knave\nAnd Selfhood turned into a slave\nTo work in Mammon’s cave,\nFair Lady?",
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          "text": "Beshrew those caitiff scouts that conspired to sully his honest name by such an imputation!",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1867, Dante Alighieri, translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Divine Comedy",
          "text": "Commingled are they with that caitiff choir\nOf Angels, who have not rebellious been,\nNor faithful were to God, but were for self.",
          "type": "quotation"
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        {
          "ref": "1875, Sidney Lanier, The Symphony",
          "text": "Is Honor gone into his grave?\nHath Faith become a caitiff knave\nAnd Selfhood turned into a slave\nTo work in Mammon’s cave,\nFair Lady?",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Especially despicable; cowardly"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "despicable",
          "despicable"
        ],
        [
          "cowardly",
          "cowardly"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈkeɪtɪf/"
    }
  ],
  "word": "caitiff"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-06-04 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (e9e0a99 and db5a844). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.