senectus

Forms

senectūs f (genitive senectūtis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin senex (“old; old man”) + -tūs, with the suffix of abstract nouns.^[2][1] senex goes back to Proto-Italic *seno- (“old”) and Proto-Indo-European *sen- (“old”); the nominative added a suffix ⟨*-ek-⟩.^[3]

Cognate (through that word) with Old Irish sen (“old”), Welsh hen (“old”), Sanskrit सन (sána, “old”), Ancient Greek ἕνος (hénos, “of last year”), Lithuanian sẽnas (“old”) and Gothic 𐍃𐌹𐌽𐌴𐌹𐌲𐍃 (sineigs, “old”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first citation is Plautus: cōnsitus sum senectūte, onustum gerō corpus, “I am overgrown with old age, I carry a burdened body”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Senectūs is the condition of old age, sometimes standing for old people themselves, and the period of old age (Caecilius: let him sip his way through old age to decrepitude).^[2][4][1] Cicero writes amāriōrem enim mē senectūs facit, “old age makes me more bitter”, and Virgil gives Charon crūda … viridisque senectūs, “a fresh, green old age”.^[2] L&S note that it is used only in the singular.^[4] Pliny the Elder uses it of the cast-off skin of a snake.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “old age, senility”.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: cōnsitus sum senectūte.^[2][6]
• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero: amāriōrem enim mē senectūs facit.^[2][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil: crūda … viridisque senectūs.^[2][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of a snake's slough.^[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. old age; old people.^[2][4][1][5]
2. The period of old age.^[2]
3. senility.^[1][5]
4. The cast-off skin of a snake, slough.^[2]

Word family

• senecta

Related words

• senex
• senium
• senātus

Usage notes

A rare adjective senectus, senecta, senectum, “aged, very old”, mostly in early Latin (senecta aetās, “old age”, in Plautus and Lucretius), is formed from senex with a different suffix.^[2][4][1] Its feminine is the source of the noun senecta.^[1][5]

References

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