Perfidies

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Acts of deliberate betrayal or treachery that violate trust or confidence
2. Instances of disloyalty involving deceit or unfaithfulness, often in a context where loyalty is expected
3. Deeds characterized by an intentional breach of faith or trust, highlighting a lack of integrity

Etymology: "Perfidies" is simply the plural of "perfidy," used when referring to several separate acts of treachery. The noun traces back through Middle French "perfidie" to Latin "perfidia," which itself came from "perfidus," meaning "faithless, treacherous, false." That adjective is built from "per," a prefix suggesting something going wrong or through, and "fides," the Latin word for "faith." So at its root, a perfidious person is someone who has broken faith, and the word's core idea has always been the violation of a trust. The connection to "fidelity" is the most useful thing to notice here. Both words descend from the same Latin "fides," with "fidelity" keeping the positive sense of keeping faith while "perfidy" carries the negative sense of having broken it. The pairing shows how a single root can produce a virtue and its opposite, depending on which prefix or suffix is attached.

Synonyms: betrayals, treacheries, deceits, disloyalties, falseness

Antonyms: loyalties, faithfulness, honesty, integrity, trustworthiness