suavitas

Forms

suāvitās f (genitive suāvitātis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin suāvis (“sweet, pleasant”) + -tās.^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces suāvis to Proto-Italic *swādu- (“sweet”) and Proto-Indo-European *sueh₂d-u- (“sweet”): the old u-stem adjective was remade as an i-stem and lost its ⟨d⟩ before ⟨w⟩.^[4] He compares Sanskrit स्वादु (svādú-, “sweet”), Ancient Greek ἡδύς (hēdús, “sweet, pleasant”) and Old English swēte.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus.^[4][5] In the OLD's earliest quotation Plautus says that salted foods without it have no charm and no sweetness.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is the quality of pleasing the senses: Plautus has the sweetness of fish, Cicero the fragrance of perfumes, the pleasing sound of letters and a certain charm of colour.^[2][3] Lewis & Short call it classical and frequent.^[3] Of the mind and feelings it is charm, attractiveness: Cicero says everyone ought to love a man for his outstanding charm.^[2] Church Latin glosses it sweetness, goodness, pleasantness.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of the sweetness of food.^[2][4][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of fragrance, sound, colour and charm of character.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Sweetness, pleasantness to the senses: of taste, smell, sound or appearance.^[2][3][1][6]
2. Charm, attractiveness, agreeableness of a person or thing.^[2][3][1]

Related words

• suāvis
• suādeō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson