English → Latin
“worthless” in Latin
vīlischeap, inexpensive; base, vile, mean, worthless, cheap, paltrytenuisthin, slender, slim, lank; especially; fine, rare, thin; pure, clear, not coarse; weak, feeble, tenuouslevislight, not heavy; easy to digest; quick, swift, fleet, nimble, rapidfacētuselegant, fine; courteous, polite; witty, jocose, facetiousinānisempty, void, hollow; vain; purposeless, meaningless, worthless, useless, fruitless, empty, idlemiserpoor, wretched, pitiful; miserable, unhappy; worthless, nullmalusunpleasant, distressing, painful, nasty, bad; unpleasant to the senses, sight, smell, taste, touch; bad, evil, wicked, mcorrumpōto pervert, corrupt, deprave or infect; to gain to oneself by gifts, etc.; bribe; to spoil or rotprāvuscrooked, deformed; depraved, perverse, wicked; vicious, wrong, bad, improperimprobusexcessive, immoderate, flagrant, impudent; greedy, wanton, ravenous; wicked, bad, villainous, immoral, impious, maliciou
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
worthless
Physically, vilis, parvi pretii (without great value or price): tenuis (slight, poor): levis (without intrinsic value); facete also levidensis: nullius pretii (of metals, etc., without value): rerum inops (of writings; Vid: Hor., A.P., 322): inanis (void; e.g., speech, letter): miser (miserable, pitiable): malus (bad): corruptus (spoiled).
In a moral point of view, malus (inclined to evil: opposed to bonus): pravus (spoiled). (The words are found in this connection and order.) malus pravusque: improbus (not acting in a proper manner): nequam; nihili (worth or good for nothing; opposed to frugi, especially of slaves): inutilis (not fit for anything). A worthless person (rascal, squanderer, etc.), nebulo; also, homo nulla re bona dignus: to be worthless, nihili esse (Vid: Cic., Qu. Fr., 1, 2, 4); nullius pretii esse. Vid: also, CORRUPT.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for worthless?
- The usual Latin words for “worthless” are vīlis, tenuis, levis; also facētus, inānis, miser. 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.