laete

Forms

laetē (comparative laetius, superlative laetissimē)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin laetus (“glad; fertile, luxuriant”) + -ē.^[2][3][4] For the adjective, Walde–Hofmann and Pokorny, taking “fat, rich” as its older meaning, connected it with lāridum (“bacon”) and largus (“generous”); de Vaan calls the reconstruction this needs very artificial.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero,^[6] who in the ninth Philippic speaks of someone taking the death of the senate's leader “gladly and insolently”, laete atque insolenter.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

In the sense “gladly, joyfully” it is used by Cicero and Livy, who says that games were watched more gladly because of successes in war;^[2][7] Gellius has the superlative in laetissime gaudere, “to rejoice most joyfully”.^[2][8]

From the farming sense of the adjective it means “luxuriantly, abundantly”: Columella has a plant that comes into leaf more luxuriantly, and Pliny the Elder crops that grow more abundantly under honest hands.^[2][7] Livy uses it figuratively of the city reborn “more luxuriantly and fruitfully” as if from its roots.^[2] Applied to speech it means “in a rich or florid style”: Quintilian sets speaking laete against speaking severe, and Pliny the Younger worries that he has written more floridly than the severity of a speech allows.^[2][4][8] Ecclesiastical Latin keeps it as “gladly, joyfully”.^[9]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of taking a death gladly.^[2][6]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy writes of games watched more gladly after victories.^[2][6]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses the comparative of a plant leafing luxuriantly.^[2][6]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of a rich, florid style.^[2][6]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius writes laetissime gaudere.^[2][6]

Meanings

Adverb

1. Luxuriantly, abundantly.^[2][8]
2. In a rich or florid style.^[2][7]
3. Joyfully, gladly.^[2][4][9]

Related words

• laetus
• laetitia

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
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 f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
9. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson