astutus

Forms

ā̆stūtus (feminine ā̆stūta, neuter ā̆stūtum, comparative astūtior, adverb astūtē); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin astus (“cunning”) + -ūtus.^[2][3][1][4] The origin of the noun is uncertain:^[5] the Romans derived its old ablative ⟨astū⟩ from Ancient Greek ἄστυ (ástu, “town”), and Vendryes from a stem ⟨*ad-stu-⟩ "standing by", from astō (“to stand by”).^[4] Döderlein connected it with acuō (“to sharpen”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus,^[4][7] whose Pseudolus needs a man who is cunning, learned, careful and clever.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means cunning, crafty, astute, of people and of actions:^[2] Plautus has a trick more cunning than any poet ever devised, and the Rhetorica ad Herennium a more cunning plan.^[2] Lewis & Short note that it is more often used in a bad sense, sly or designing, than of shrewdness.^[8] Döderlein sets it beside callidus: both are cunning as a mark of cleverness, but astūtus is sharpness in planning and carrying out a secret scheme.^[6] The comparative is usual from Plautus on, and the superlative appears in Augustine.^[3] Stelten glosses it in Church Latin as "wise, prudent".^[9] English borrowed it in the 1610s as astute.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a cunning man.^[2][4][7]
• 86/82 BC – The Rhetorica ad Herennium of a cunning plan.^[2][7]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses the superlative.^[3]
• 1610s – Borrowed into English as astute.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Cunning, crafty, astute, shrewd; sly.^[2][8][1]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Wise, prudent.^[9]

Word family

• ā̆stūtia
• astutulus

Related words

• astus
• callidus
• English astute

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson