cassus

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈkas.sʊs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈkas.sus]^[1]

Forms

cassus (feminine cassa, neuter cassum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

The OLD tentatively takes it as a participle of careō “to lack”.^[2][3] Wiktionary sees a verbal adjective from the root of careō and castus “pure”, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *ḱes- (“to cut”), as Watkins also proposes.^[1][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first source is Plautus, who has an empty nut and virgō dōte cassa “a girl without a dowry”.^[3][5] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It meant devoid of, lacking, as Lucretius' body deprived of light, and of seeds and stalks empty, hollow, as Plautus' nut and Ovid's barren reed.^[2][5][6] It meant insubstantial, empty of meaning, of fears baseless, as in Lucretius, and fruitless, vain, as in Virgil, with in cassum “in vain”.^[2] Lewis and Short call it mostly poetic.^[6]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant useless, vain, empty.^[7] A Late Latin verb cassāre “to annul”, from it, gave Old French casser and so one source of English quash “to make void”.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of an empty nut and of a girl without a dowry.^[5][3]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of a body without light and of baseless fears.^[2][5][3]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of vain efforts.^[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Devoid (of), lacking.^[2]
2. Empty, hollow.^[2]
3. Insubstantial; empty of meaning.^[2]
4. Baseless, unfounded.^[2]
5. Fruitless, vain, in cassum, in vain.^[2]

Word family

• cassō
• incassus

Related words

• careō
• incassum
• English quash

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson