The story
- Latin · borrowed fromnefārius“execrable, abominable”
- English todaynefarious
From Latin nefārius (“execrable, abominable”), from nefās (“something contrary to divine law, an impious deed, sin, crime”), from ne- (“not”) + fās (“the dictates of religion, divine law”), which is related to Latin for (“to speak, to say”) and cognate to Ancient Greek φημί (phēmí, “to say”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.