Latin bardus and gurdus

Abstract

The origin of the Latin words bardus ‘stupid’ and gurdus ‘stupid’ is examined. It is shown that bardus cannot be borrowed from Etruscan, as previously claimed. It is probably a borrowing from Oscan and is cognate with forms like Greek βραδύς, Lithuanian gurdus ‘slow’. While gurdus could be a loanword from some unknown language, it could also be the regular result in Latin of *gw ord-o-, an o-stem adjective derived from the same root as the u-stem that lies behind bardus.