astus

Forms

astus or āstus m (genitive astūs); fourth declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[2][3][4] Vendryes proposed that it is from Latin astō (“to stand by”), as a u-stem noun Proto-Italic *ad-stu-, from Proto-Indo-European *-sth₂-u- (“a standing by”), comparing the adverb praestō (“at hand”), which appears in some inscriptions as ⟨praestū⟩.^[4][1] Ancient grammarians derived it from Ancient Greek ἄστυ (ástu, “town”), since those who live in a town seem shrewd and sharp;^[4][3] Ernout and Meillet thought the Greek derivation might reflect a pun modelled on urbānē (“wittily”), but de Vaan notes that the adverb took this sense only after the Old Latin period.^[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first; from Plautus to Ovid only the ablative astū is found.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

It means cunning, craft or guile, mostly in the ablative astū, used almost as an adverb, “by craft”, and good or bad in tone.^[2][1] Other cases appear after Ovid, and especially in the plural it is a trick or stratagem, as Seneca has Ulysses weaving tricks in his crafty heart.^[2] Servius glosses astū as malice and says that we properly call malicious people astūtī.^[3] Church Latin glosses it cleverness or cunning.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus has the ablative astū.^[4][5]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of the tricks of Ulysses.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Cunning, craft, guile;^[2][6][1] astū, by craft.^[2][6][1]
2. A trick, stratagem.^[2][1]

Word family

• astūtus
• astūtia

Related words

• astū

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson