castitas

Forms

castitās f (genitive castitātis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin castus (“pure, chaste”) + -tās.^[2][1][3] Etymonline glosses castus as “cut off, separated; pure”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero has it first,^[5] in the De legibus, saying that women should understand that their nature can bear complete chastity.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short call the sense “chastity” rare but classical, with pudīcitia as its synonym.^[6] Horace uses it of a wife's fidelity, and Valerius Maximus of a son of doubtful chastity.^[2] Vitruvius uses it of moral integrity, saying that no work can be done without good faith and integrity,^[2] and Gellius of purity of life and of the ceremonial purity required to enter temples.^[6][2] The grammarian Nonius says it is more than pudīcitia, since it adds religious cleanness.^[3] It has no plural.^[3] Church Latin uses it for chastity and purity.^[7] Through Old French it gave English chastity about 1200.^[4]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of women's chastity.^[2][6][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace, of a wife's fidelity.^[2][5]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius, of integrity.^[2][5]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius, of ceremonial purity.^[2][5]
• c. 1200 – English chastity, through Old French.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Moral purity, integrity.^[2][6][1]
2. Chastity; of married women, fidelity; virginity, continence.^[2][6][1][7]
3. Ceremonial purity.^[2]

Related words

• castus
• castimōnia
• pudīcitia
• English chastity

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson