doctus

Forms

doctus (feminine docta, neuter doctum; comparative doctior, superlative doctissimus); first/second-declension adjective^[1] Plautus has the genitive plural doctum.^[1]

Etymology

It is the perfect passive participle of doceō (“to teach”), used as an adjective.^[1][2][3] De Vaan traces doceō to Proto-Italic *dok-eje- and Proto-Indo-European *doḱ-eye/o- (“to make someone accept something”), cognate with Ancient Greek δοκεῖ (dokeî, “it seems”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[3] who says of a clever woman nihil hāc doctā doctius, “nothing is more learned than this learned lady”.^[1]

Semantic evolution

Doctus is “learned, wise” (Terence: “I never come to you without leaving wiser”), of words and works “learned, skilful” (Catullus of his friend's history in three cartīs doctīs), and as a noun doctī, “the learned”.^[1][2] It is “taught by practice, expert, skilled”, also of animals.^[1] It is used especially of poets and poetry, and doctae sorōrēs are the Muses (Horace: ivy, doctārum … praemia frontium, “the reward of learned brows”).^[1]

Church Latin glosses it “learned”.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: nihil hāc doctā doctius.^[1][5]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus: cartīs doctīs.^[1][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace: doctārum … praemia frontium.^[1][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. learned, wise.^[1][2][4]
2. Skilled, expert (by practice).^[1]
3. (of poets) Learned, doctae sorōrēs, the Muses.^[1]

Noun

1. (masculine plural) The learned.^[1]

Related words

• doceō
• doctor
• doctrīna
• documentum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c 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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de