Etymologically
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flatus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈfɫaː.tʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈflaː.tus][1]

Forms

flātus m (genitive flātūs); fourth declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin flō (“to blow”) + -tus, a verbal noun of the fourth declension.[2][3][1] De Vaan tentatively traces flō to Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₁- (“to blow”), perhaps related to fleō (“to weep”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first source is Varro;[5] Cicero writes in a letter that the south wind blowing hard against him carried him back to Regium.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is the blowing of the wind, a blast or breeze, as in Catullus' villa exposed to the blasts of the south wind.[2] Of people it is breathing or a breath, especially a laboured one, a breath blown to kindle a fire, and in Horace the sound of a pipe.[2][6] Vitruvius uses it of a blast from bellows and of vapours rising from the ground, and Suetonius of wind from the bowels: Claudius planned an edict allowing it at dinner.[2] Figuratively it is pride or vainglory, as in Seneca.[2]

Church Latin glosses it “breath, blowing, blast”,[7] and in medieval texts it is the breath of life, the soul.[8]

Timeline

  • 116–27 BC – Varro.[5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of a strong wind.[2][5]
  • 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus of the blasts of the south wind.[2][5]
  • c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius of wind from the bowels.[2][5]
  • Middle Ages – Of the breath of life.[8]
  • 1660s – Borrowed into English as flatus “wind in the bowels”.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A blowing of the wind, a blast, breeze.[2][6][1]
  2. Breathing, a breath; a note blown on a pipe.[2][6][1]
  3. A current of air; an exhalation, vapour; wind from the bowels, flatulence.[2][1]
  4. Pride, vainglory.[2][6]
  5. (Medieval Latin) The breath of life, the soul.[8]

Word family

  • flātō
  • flō
  • afflātus
  • English flatus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  9. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com