fletus

Forms

flētus m (genitive flētūs); fourth declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from fleō (“to weep”) with the suffix -tus of action nouns.^[2][1] De Vaan traces ⟨fleō⟩ to Proto-Italic *flē- and Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₁- (“to bleat, cry”), cognate with Latvian blêt (“to bleat”) and Old English blǣtan (“to bleat”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Ennius' epitaph for himself, quoted by Cicero: nēmō mē lacrimīs decoret nec fūnera flētū faxit, “let no one honour me with tears or make my funeral with weeping”.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

It is weeping, wailing or lamentation, in the singular and the plural.^[2][4] Concretely it is the tears themselves: Cicero speaks of wiping away tears, and Livy of a face bathed in tears.^[2] Church Latin glosses it “weeping, bewailing”.^[6]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius' epitaph.^[4][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of wiping away tears.^[2][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of a face wet with tears.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. weeping, wailing, lamentation.^[2][1][6]
2. Tears.^[2][1]

Word family

• fletifer

Related words

• fleō
• flēbilis

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson