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certatim

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word certatim

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 250–184 BC, Plautus
Ultimate origin
Latin (certō)

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kɛrˈtaː.tĩː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [t͡ʃerˈtaː.tim][1]

Forms

certātim (adverb, not comparable)[2][1]

Etymology

It is formed from certō (“to contend, vie”) with the adverbial ending -im.[2][3][4] ⟨certō⟩ comes from certus (“decided”), the old past participle of cernō (“to sift, decide”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *kritos and Proto-Indo-European *kri-to- (“sifted, separated”), cognate with Ancient Greek κριτός (kritós, “chosen, separate”).[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Plautus on,[3] whose Miles gloriosus has an old man boasting that the guests vie with each other in feeding him and giving him presents.[3]

Semantic evolution

It means “in rivalry, emulously, eagerly”, of several people each trying to outdo the others: Cicero speaks of everyone competing to speak about his safety, and Catullus of all Delphi rushing out of the city.[2][3][4] The TLL notes that it is common in Virgil, Livy, Silius, Statius and Tacitus, but absent from Terence, Varro, Lucretius, Caesar and Propertius.[3] Virgil uses it of farmers vying to fell an ash tree.[3]

Church Latin glosses it “eagerly, earnestly”.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of guests vying with gifts.[3][6]
  • 120–67 BC – Sisenna of stones hurled at the enemy in rivalry.[3][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of speeches vying for his safety.[3][6]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil, who uses it often.[3][6]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. In rivalry, in competition, emulously; eagerly.[2][4][1][7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
Cite this entry

“Certatim.” Etymologically, 19 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/certatim. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

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