antistes

Forms

antistes m or f (genitive antistitis); third declension^[1] A nominative antistis appears in inscriptions.^[2] A feminine antistita also occurs.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin antistō (“to stand before, excel”), a form of antestō, made of ante (“before”) and stō (“to stand”): one who stands before, a president.^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero uses it in the speech on his house of the priests who have charge of ceremonies and rites, and in the De divinatione of the keepers of the Sibylline books.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short find the general sense, an overseer, rare, as Columella has of the vintagers.^[3] Its usual sense is a high priest or priestess, with the genitive of the rite or god, and also the mouthpiece of a god.^[2][3] From that it came to mean a master or authority in an art or school, as in Cicero's De oratore,^[2] and Ovid uses it of a patron of learned men.^[2] It is masculine and feminine, and there is also a feminine antistita.^[2][3] In the glosses it is also equated with Greek episcopus,^[4] and in Christian and Medieval Latin it is a bishop, or a priest in the Old Testament.^[6][7] Köbler finds it in Aldhelm and Bede.^[5]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of priests and of a master of an art.^[2][5]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid, of a patron.^[2][5]
• 1st century AD – Columella, of an overseer.^[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. An overseer, president.^[3][1]
2. A high priest or priestess; the mouthpiece of a god.^[2][3][1]
3. A master, authoritative teacher (of an art or school).^[2][1]
4. A protector, patron.^[2]
5. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A bishop; a priest of the Old Testament.^[6][7][1]

Word family

• antistatus
• antistita
• antistitium

Related words

• antistō
• stō

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson