English → Latin
“vain” in Latin
vānusvain, empty, vacant, void; unsubstantial; groundless, baseless, meaningless, pointless, worthless, ineffectual, mindlessinūtilisuseless, unserviceable, unprofitable; hurtful, injurious; void, null, invalid, without any legal usecāsusa fall, downwards movement; accident, chance; an event, happening, occurrenceirritusinvalid, void, null and void; ineffective, useless, irrelevantinānisempty, void, hollow; vain; purposeless, meaningless, worthless, useless, fruitless, empty, idlefūtilisthat easily pours out; that can not contain, leaky; untrustworthy, vain, worthless, futile, frivolousfragilisfragile, brittle, easily broken, breakable; weak, frail, flimsy, perishablecadūcusThat falls or has fallen, falling, collapsing, tottering, drooping.; That easily falls, inclined to fall; Devoted to deacontentiōstretching, tension; competition, rivalry; struggle, effort
The English word vain itself goes back to Latin vānus.
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
vain
Useless; to no purpose, vanus: inutilis; cassus: irritus.
Frivolous, trifling, worthless, inanis, vanus, futilis (good for nothing): fragilis, caducus. (The words are found in this connection and order.) fragilis caducusque, fluxus atque fragilis (transitory). Vain endeavors, thoughts, contentiones, cogitationes inanes: vain pleasures, laetitiae futiles: human affairs are vain, res humanae fragiles caducaeque sunt: everything earthly is vain and transitory, infra lunam nihil est nisi mortale et caducum; breves et mutabiles rerum vices sunt.
Conceited, Vid:
Attached to vain things, vanus: inanis. To be vain, *vanarum rerum or vano glorioiae honorisque studio trahi.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for vain?
- The usual Latin words for “vain” are vānus, inūtilis, cāsus; also irritus, inānis, fūtilis. 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.