The word “adefesio,” as a masculine noun and with a colloquial usage, means something outlandish, absurd, or particularly ugly that stands out due to its unusual extravagance.
SYNONYMS FOR Adefesio
- Nonsense
- Sperpento
- Birria
- Stantigua
- Extravagance
- Espantajo
- Mamarracho
- Bodrio
ORIGIN OF Adefesio
The most accepted origin of adefesio comes from Ephesios, a Latin word that appears for the first time in the well-known Epistle to the Ephesians of Saint Paul and that was later mistranslated by one of the Catholic scribes who, when translating the apostle’s epistle, wrote adefesio instead of efesios.
However, there is a controversy unleashed over time that contradicts this hypothesis.
One of them maintains that the origin of adefesio comes from insults that St. Paul received from the Ephesians who felt offended by the assertions of the epistle because they considered them “nonsensical, absurd and extravagant and were adefesios, that is, “contrary to the Ephesians”.
Joaquim Vicenç Bastús y Carrera, a 19th century philologist, argued that the origin of adefesio came from Hermodorus, a brilliant citizen of Ephesus condemned for ostracism and for “speaking adefesios”, that is, using useless and ridiculous words.
Héctor Zimmerman, Argentine journalist and philologist of the 20th century, argues that the real origin of adefesios comes from colloquial speech when they wanted to refer to “talking in vain”, that is, using extravagant terms or words, which over time led to say that “one spoke in adefesios” or “one was an adefesio” to refer to a nonsensical, ridiculous or ugly situation.
CURIOSITIES OF Adefesio
There is a curious modern reinterpretation that comes from the feminist current that affirms that Saint Paul, a convinced misogynist, held hurtful and burlesque ideas and precepts against women who should submit to men by means of “ridiculous, extravagant and ugly” ideas, that is to say, he was an eyesore.