Etymologically
Log in

doctus

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 18 October 2026 at 20:56. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

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]

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