What is the Latin word for crooked?

The usual Latin words for “crooked” are curvus, curvō, incurvus; also aduncus, pandus, repandus. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.

English → Latin

“crooked” in Latin

curvusbent, crooked, curved; aged (of a person); wrong curvōto crook, bend, bow, curve incurvusbent, bowed, crooked, curved aduncushooked, bent, curved pandusbent, curved, turned repandusupturned, turned up; turned back falcātuscurved, hooked, sickle-shaped; armed with scythes etc.lūnōto curve or bend into a crescent or half-moon shape oblīquussidelong, slanting, awry, oblique; In a bad sense, envious, hostile prāvuscrooked, deformed; depraved, perverse, wicked; vicious, wrong, bad, improper

Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864

crooked

Bent [☞ For the convenience of giving the synonymes together, several words are given here, that we should never construe “crooked”], curvus (general term = καμπύλος, bent in any degree; especially circularly; as quality; opposed to rectus): curvatus (bent in any degree; e.g., as a hook, in hamum; more common in prose than curvus): incurvus: leniter inflexus (bent inwards; incurvus also of persons who stoop in their gait): aduncus (bent inwards, in the shape of a hook, as the beak of a hawk, also of an aquiline nose): reduncus (bent outwards in the same shape): pandus (in the shape of an arch; Vitr., 2, 9, 12, of timber that is warpt; hence, pandus homo, according to Quint., 6, 3, 58, signifies a crook-backed man, or one with a slouching, stooping gait): repandus (bent backwards, as in Cic., calceoli repandi, i. e., shoes with a sort of twisted beak in front): falcatus (scythe-shaped, sickle-shaped): lunatus (like the horns of the crescent moon): obliquus (slanting, λοξός): pravus (σκολιός, denotes as a fault, what obliquus and curvus represent as a property; all three opposed to rectus, ὀρθός). ☞ Recurvus is poetical, and is also used in post-Augustan prose. Procurvus is poetical, (e.g., litora, falx, Verg.): intortus (opposed to surrectus et patulus: e.g., the horns of a sheep, cornua ovium): tortuosus (full of windings): flexuosus (full of bendings): sinuosus (full of cavities or folds): distorto corpore (of persons only).

Perverse, pravus σκολιός ; deviating from the right direction, purpose, etc.; e.g., mens, opinio, judicium, opposed to rectus, ὀρθός): perversus (PROP., that has been placed out of its natural position into a wrong one; hence, figuratively, not as it ought to be; e.g., sententia): praeposterus (done, or, of persons, acting, in the wrong order; beginning at the end, etc.).

Bent in different ways or directions, distortus (διεστραμμένος). Crooked legs or thighs, crura distorta or vara (straddling, σκέλη οκαμβά: one who has crooked legs, varus); crura valga (bent outwards like a badger’s, σκέλη βλσιδά: that has such, valgus); crura vatia (bent inward, σκέλη ῥαιβά; one who has them, vatius): pedibus distortis (διεστραμμένος τοὺς πόδας, with or having crooked feet).

Quick answer

What is the Latin word for crooked?: The usual Latin words for “crooked” are curvus, curvō, incurvus; also aduncus, pandus, repandus. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.

Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.