nepos

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈnɛ.poːs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈnɛː.pos]^[1]

Forms

nepōs m or f (genitive nepōtis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *nepōt-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂nep-ōt- (“descendant other than a son, grandson”).^[2][3] The feminine counterpart is neptis.^[2] The only evidence for the initial laryngeal is the Greek form below.^[2]

Cognate with Old Irish nia (“sister's son”), Sanskrit नपात् (nápāt, “descendant, grandson”), Albanian nip (“grandson, nephew”), Old Lithuanian nepuotis (“grandson”), Old English nefa (“grandson, nephew”) and Ancient Greek ἀνεψιός (anepsiós, “cousin”).^[2][4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus onwards,^[2] who has a soldier boast that women love him because he is a grandson of Venus.^[4] Ennius uses it as a feminine for Ilia, the granddaughter of Aeneas.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

Its basic meaning was a grandson, and early on also a granddaughter.^[4][5] In poetry it meant a descendant in general, with seri nepotes for remote posterity.^[4] In viticulture it was a side shoot of a vine.^[4] A figurative sense “spendthrift, playboy”, from the idea of a grandson squandering his inheritance, appears in Cicero and Horace.^[4][6]

From the Augustan period it also meant a nephew, and the sense “cousin” appears only after AD 150.^[2][5] Medieval texts use it for a nephew, a first cousin and, as a feminine, a niece.^[7] The modern term English nepotism comes through Italian from its use for the “nephews” of popes.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for a grandson.^[4][9]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it for a granddaughter.^[4][9]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero calls a man a wasteful nepos.^[4][9]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it for a side shoot of the vine.^[4][9]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses it for sisters' grandsons and nephews.^[5][9]
• Middle Ages – It means a nephew or a cousin.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A grandson; a granddaughter.^[4][5]
2. A descendant, seri nepotes: remote posterity.^[4]
3. (viticulture) A side shoot of a vine.^[4]
4. A spendthrift, prodigal.^[4][6]
5. (post-Augustan) A nephew.^[5]
6. (Medieval Latin) A first cousin; a niece.^[7]

Word family

• adnepōs
• nepōtālis
• nepōtātus
• nepōtor
• nepōtula
• nepōtulus
• prō̆nepōs
• trinepōs
• abnepōs
• neptis

Related words

• English nephew
• English nepotism

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de