Etymologically
Log in

paludatus

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 13:23. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [pa.ɫuːˈdaː.tʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [pa.luˈdaː.tus][1]

Forms

palūdātus (feminine palūdāta, neuter palūdātum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is formed with the suffix -ātus on a stem ⟨*palud-⟩, which the OLD and Köbler connect with palla (“mantle”).[2][3] Wiktionary instead derives it from Palūda, a name of Minerva in military dress.[1] Priscian derives it from palūdāmentum (“military cloak”) and insists that it is a noun, not a participle.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Lucilius.[3] Varro explains that a general who goes out to war with his lictors is said to set out palūdātus.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

It is used above all of a commander leaving for his province or for war in the general's cloak: Cicero asks men who set out cloaked for their provinces whether anyone thought them consuls, and writes that “our Pansa” left in his cloak;[5][6] Caesar has consuls leaving palūdātī, and in Suetonius' life of Claudius the emperor presides in a general's cloak.[5][6] Seneca says that men praise acts that would be punished with death if done in secret, because men in uniform did them.[6] Festus has cloaked maidens, and Juvenal generals.[5][6] Claudian calls the imperial court palūdāta.[5][6] In Sidonius the plural palūdātī are soldiers, as against civilians in tunics.[6][5]

Timeline

  • c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius has the word.[3]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro, of a general setting out for war.[2][3]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, of magistrates leaving for their provinces.[5][3]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar, of consuls leaving the city.[5][3]
  • c. 431–486 AD – Sidonius, of soldiers.[6][3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Wearing a military cloak.[2][5][1]
  2. Of a general, in the general's cloak, setting out for war.[2][5][6]
  3. (Late Latin, plural as noun) Soldiers.[6][5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn