stultus

Forms

stultus (feminine stulta, neuter stultum, comparative stultior, superlative stultissimus, adverb stultē); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *stoltos,^[1] and belongs with stolidus (“dull, stupid”).^[2][3] De Vaan reconstructs ⟨*stl-to-⟩ and calls the further origin uncertain;^[3] Pokorny derives both adjectives from Proto-Indo-European *stel- (“to place, stand”), so that they first meant “inert, standing still”.^[3][4] Wiktionary compares Ancient Greek στελεός (steleós) and, with less certainty, Proto-Germanic *stultaz (“proud”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus.^[4] Plautus has quid stulta plōrās?, “why are you crying, silly girl?”, and stultior stultō fuistī, “you were more of a fool than a fool”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Stultus is “slow-witted, stupid, foolish” of persons, and of actions and words “silly, inept”.^[2][5][1] Plautus piles up its synonyms: stultī, stolidī, fatuī, fungī, bardī, blennī, bucconēs, “fools, dolts, idiots, mushrooms, blockheads, drivellers, babblers”.^[5] Stultōrum fēriae, “the fools' feast”, was a name for the Quirinalia, when those who had missed their own festival sacrificed (Ovid, Festus).^[2]

As a noun stultus is “a fool”;^[6] Church Latin glosses it “silly, stupid”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: quid stulta plōrās?.^[2][4]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid explains the stultōrum fēriae.^[2][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. foolish, stupid, slow-witted.^[2][5][1][6]
2. Silly, inept (of actions or words).^[2]
3. stultōrum fēriae: a name for the Quirinalia.^[2]

Noun

1. A fool.^[6]

Word family

• stultiloquentia
• stultiloquus
• stultitia
• stultividus

Related words

• stolidus

Usage notes

Döderlein groups stultus with stupidus, brūtus and bardus, words for want of intellect.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c 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 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 c d Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper