Etymologically
Log in

actus

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 20:51. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈaːk.tʊs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈak.tus][1]

Forms

āctus m (genitive āctūs); fourth declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin agō (“to drive, do”) + -tus, an action noun.[2][1][3] Agō continues Proto-Italic *agō, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ- (“to drive”).[1] Ovid explains the name of the festival Agonalia from it, because cattle are driven rather than come by themselves.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cato the Elder uses it of a right of way for driving.[2] Köbler dates Cato 234–149 BC.[4]

Semantic evolution

It first meant the driving of cattle or carts and the right of way for it, then a cart track, and a land measure of 120 feet.[2] Isidore describes the smallest actus as four feet wide and a hundred and twenty long.[2][5] Varro also uses it of a series of numbers.[2][6]

It meant physical motion, then action, activity, duty and the conduct of business.[2] In the theatre it was the performance of a play and an act of it, as Horace's rule that a play should not have more than five acts, and figuratively an act in the drama of life.[2] It also meant conduct of life and a deed.[2] In Christian Latin Actus Apostolorum named the Acts of the Apostles.[5] In medieval Latin it meant a public office and the district of an official.[7] The English noun act comes from it and its neuter actum in the late 14th century.[8]

Timeline

  • 234–149 BC – Cato the Elder uses it of a right of way.[2][4]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence speaks of the first act of a play.[2][4]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of a land measure and of numbers.[2][4]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace limits a play to five acts.[2][4]
  • c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville names the Acts of the Apostles.[5][4]
  • late 14th century – English act is recorded.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The driving of cattle or carts; a right of way for driving.[2][1]
  2. A cart track; a path or course.[2][1]
  3. A land measure of 120 feet, actus quadratus, an area 120 feet square.[2][1]
  4. Motion, movement.[2][1]
  5. action, activity; duty, business.[2][1]
  6. The performance of a play; delivery of a speech.[2]
  7. An act of a play; an episode.[2][1]
  8. Conduct, behaviour.[2]
  9. A deed, exploit.[2][1]
  10. (Medieval Latin) A public office; the district of an official.[7]

Word family

  • āctuālis
  • āctuōsus
  • āctuārius
  • āctuō
  • āctūtum
  • ācta
  • actum
  • English act

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
  6. ^ Marcus Terentius Varro, De lingua Latina (text of The Latin Library; book and paragraph numbers as there).
  7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com