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optimas

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word optimas

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
86/82 BC, Rhetorica ad Herennium
Ultimate origin
Latin (optimus,-as)

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈɔp.tɪ.maːs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈɔp.ti.mas][1]

Forms

optimās m (genitive optimātis); third declension[1] It is also spelled optumās; the genitive plural is usually optimātium.[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin optimus (“best”) + -ās, formed like summās and prīmās.[2][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from the Rhetorica ad Herennium.[4] Cicero describes a constitution mixed from the royal, the aristocratic and the popular kinds.[5]

Semantic evolution

As an adjective it means of the best or noblest in a state, aristocratic.[2][5] In the plural, optimātēs are the best class of citizens, the nobility, who claim to uphold what is best in the state, and in Roman politics of the later Republic the senatorial party: Cicero writes of a tribune who brought a land law against the will of the senate and of all the optimātēs, and of the aristocratic path after Catulus' death.[2] Symmachus transfers it to a philosopher, a noble of wisdom.[3] In Medieval Latin the optimātēs are the king's great men and dignitaries of the palace, and especially the lay magnates who were companions of the Merovingian king.[6] Church Latin glosses it chief, aristocrat.[7]

Timeline

  • 86/82 BC – The Rhetorica ad Herennium.[4]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of the senatorial party.[2]
  • c. 340–402 AD – Symmachus of a philosopher.[3][4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (chiefly plural) An aristocrat; the nobility; the senatorial party, the Optimates.[2][1][7]
  2. (Medieval Latin, plural) The king's great men, palace dignitaries; the lay magnates.[6]

Adjective

  1. Of the best or noblest, aristocratic.[2][5][1]

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. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
Cite this entry

“Optimas.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/optimas. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

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