suaviter

Forms

suāviter (comparative suāvius, superlative suāvissimē)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin suāvis (“sweet, pleasant”) + -ter.^[2][1] De Vaan explains suāvis as an old u-stem adjective, Proto-Italic *swādu-, from Proto-Indo-European *sueh₂d-u- (“sweet”), which was remade as an i-stem like all other adjectives of that type; the ⟨d⟩ was then lost before ⟨w⟩.^[3] The adjective is cognate with Ancient Greek ἡδύς (hēdús, “sweet, pleasant”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its earliest quotation in the OLD is from Plautus, of music: age, iam infla buccas, nunciam aliquid suaviter, “come now, puff out your cheeks, now something sweetly”.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is pleasing to the senses, sweetly, as of sound or smell, in Plautus, Lucretius, Seneca and both Plinys.^[2] From Cicero on it more often means pleasing to the mind, charmingly or agreeably:^[2] Cicero writes that it is no use knowing what to say unless one can say it fluently and suāviter,^[2] and Horace uses it too.^[2] In colloquial Latin suāviter est means “one is having a good time”, as in Petronius.^[2] In Ecclesiastical Latin it keeps the senses sweetly, agreeably and delightfully.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of music.^[2][4]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of things pleasing to the senses.^[2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of agreeable speech and in his letters.^[2][4]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it in his Satires and Epistles.^[2][4]
• before 66 AD – Petronius has the colloquial suāviter fuit.^[2][4]

Meanings

Adverb

1. So as to please the senses, sweetly.^[2][1]
2. Charmingly, agreeably, pleasantly; also, more loosely, nicely.^[2][5]
3. suāviter est (usually with a dative): one is having a good time.^[2]

Related words

• suāvis
• suāvitās
• suādeō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson