aetas

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈae̯.taːs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈɛː.tas]^[1]

Forms

aetās f (genitive aetātis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is a contraction of aevitās, from Latin aevum (“age, lifetime”) + -tās.^[2][3] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Italic *aiwotāts, from *aiwom and the suffix *-tāts.^[1] The full form aevitās survives in the Twelve Tables, Varro and Cicero's laws, and inscriptions spell it ⟨etas⟩.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Twelve Tables have aevitās in the rule “if illness or old age is a hindrance”.^[2] Köbler dates the Twelve Tables to about 450 BC.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It was the number of years one has lived, one's age, and the age of things such as wine or words.^[2] It also named a period of life (infancy, youth, old age), an age group, youth or old age in particular, and the whole of one's lifetime, aetātem meant “all one's life”.^[2] By extension it was human life in general and a historical age or era.^[2][1]

Isidore distinguished the age of a man, divided into infancy, youth and old age, from the ages of the world.^[5] In medieval British Latin it was a person's age, childhood, old age and an age group.^[6] It survives in Italian età, Spanish edad and Portuguese idade, and Old French aage gave English age.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 450 BC – The Twelve Tables use aevitās of old age.^[2][4]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus asks “how old do I seem to you?”.^[2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero speaks of the turn of life.^[2][4]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore distinguishes the ages of man and of the world.^[5][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. One's age, years; full age; the age of things.^[2]
2. A period of life (infancy, youth, old age).^[2]
3. An age group.^[2]
4. Youth; old age.^[2]
5. A lifetime, aetātem, all one's life, for an age.^[2]
6. Human life.^[2]
7. An age, era; a generation.^[1]

Word family

• aetātula
• aeternus

Related words

• aevum
• English age

Usage notes

Isidore notes that aetās could mean one year in annals, seven years of a man's life, a hundred years, or longer spans.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press