Etymologically
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beate

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Forms

beātē (comparative beātius, superlative beātissimē)[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin beātus (“happy, blessed”) + -ē.[2][1] beātus is the participle of beō (“to make happy”), whose origin de Vaan finds unclear: a link with bonus (“good”), from Proto-Italic *dwejo- beside *dwenos, is attractive in meaning but hard to explain in form.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Catullus,[4] who pairs it with bene: “I am not badly off, but well and happily”.[5] Cicero, in the Brutus, speaks of living well and happily.[2]

Semantic evolution

It means happily, often with bene and of living.[2][5] Seneca the Elder uses it of speaking excellently or felicitously, as when he says how much better Virgil put a thought, and of filling a place lavishly or abundantly.[2] Seneca applies it to the happiness of Diogenes.[5]

Timeline

  • 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus of being well and happily off.[5][4]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of living happily.[2][4]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of the happy life of Diogenes.[5][4]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. Happily.[2][1]
  2. Excellently, felicitously.[2]
  3. Lavishly, abundantly.[2]

References

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