cautes

Forms

cautēs f (genitive cautis); third declension^[1] It is also spelled cōtēs, the form used until Virgil.^[2][3] Tibullus has the nominative cautis.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *kōti- (“sharp point, rock”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ḱe/oh₃-t- (“sharpening”), from the same stem as cōs “whetstone”; de Vaan finds plausible Ernout and Meillet's view that ⟨cōtēs⟩ was the old plural of that noun, “sharp points, promontories”, and calls ⟨au⟩ a hypercorrect spelling.^[3][2] He compares Old English hān (“whetstone”).^[3] Isidore derived it from caveō “to beware”.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Ennius, in the spelling ⟨cōtēs⟩.^[3][4] Its first quotation in the OLD is in Caesar, of ships left by the tide that had no fear of rocks and reefs.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is usually in the plural a rock, cliff, crag or reef, and stands for hard-heartedness: in Virgil a face is no more moved than hard flint or a crag of Marpessus.^[2] Columella uses it of loose stones, the stones of Deucalion.^[2] Döderlein says it is a rough, pointed rock that threatens danger, smaller than scopulus and hidden in the water, and so treacherous.^[6] Köbler dates it from Virgil.^[7]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius.^[3][4][7]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of rocks and reefs.^[2][7]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil, of a hard heart.^[2][7]
• 1st century AD – Columella of Deucalion's stones.^[2][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A rough, pointed rock, crag, cliff or reef.^[2][4][1]
2. A detached piece of rock, a stone.^[2]

Related words

• cōs

Usage notes

Cautēs is also the name of a torch-bearing figure shown beside Mithras in Mithraic images, with Cautopates.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b 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 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de