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caecitas

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word caecitas

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
81–43 BC, Cicero
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European (*keh₂i-ko-)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin caecus
Latin caecitas

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈkae̯.kɪ.taːs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈt͡ʃɛː.t͡ʃi.tas][1]

Forms

caecitās f (genitive caecitātis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin caecus (“blind”) + -tās.[2][3][4] De Vaan traces caecus to Proto-Italic *kaiko- and Proto-Indo-European *keh₂i-ko- (“one-eyed”), cognate with Old Irish cáech (“one-eyed”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Cicero,[5] who in the De finibus calls sound sight a good and blindness a misery, and discusses blindness in the Tusculans.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short call it rare but found in good prose;[6] Pliny the Elder uses it too.[6] Cicero already uses it figuratively, of blindness of the mind, defining madness as blindness of the mind to everything, and in the speech on his house saying that punishment of the eyes has turned into blindness of the mind.[6][2] Isidore distinguishes it from caecitūdō.[3] In Church Latin it is darkness and spiritual blindness.[7]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, of bodily and mental blindness.[2][6][4]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder.[6][4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Blindness.[2][6][1][7]
  2. Blindness of the mind, lack of discernment;[2][6][7] (Ecclesiastical Latin) spiritual blindness, darkness.[2][6][7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
Cite this entry

“Caecitas.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/caecitas. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

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