"stony," 1640s, from Latin lapideus, from lapid-, stem of lapis "a stone, pebble," from Proto-Italic *laped-, which de Vaan writes is "Probably a Mediterranean loanword," with cognates in Greek: lepas "bare rock, mountain," lepas "limpet," lepades "molluscs which stick to rocks."
Entries linking to lapideous
dilapidate v.
1560s, "to bring (a building) to ruin, bring into a ruinous condition by misuse or neglect," from Latin dilapidatus, past participle of dilapidare "to squander, waste," originally "to throw stones, scatter like stones," from dis- "asunder" (see dis-) + lapidare "throw stones at," from lapis (genitive lapidis) "stone" (see lapideous). Perhaps the English word is a back-formation from dilapidation. Intransitive sense of "fall into total or partial ruin" is from 1712.
dilapidation n.
mid-15c., dilapidacioun, "wasteful expenditure, squandering;" late 15c., "state of disrepair, gradual ruin or decay, especially through misuse or neglect," from Late Latin dilapidationem (nominative dilapidatio) "a squandering," noun of action from past-participle stem of Latin dilapidare "throw away, squander, waste," probably etymologically "scatter like stones," from dis- "asunder" (see dis-) + lapidare "throw stones at," from lapis (genitive lapidis) "stone" (see lapideous). "Taken in Eng. in a more literal sense than was usual in Latin" [OED].
