Etymologically
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cautes

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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]
  • 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