subtus

Forms

subtus (not comparable)^[1] Also spelled suptus.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin sub (“under”) with the ending of intus (“within”),^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler and Lewis & Short record it in Plautus,^[5][3] and de Vaan dates it from Cato;^[4] it meant “below, underneath”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It was mostly an early Latin word, found in Cato, Varro and Livy but not in Cicero or Caesar.^[3] Livy tells how the Romans attacked with siege works above ground, while subtus Macedones cuniculis oppugnabant “the Macedonians attacked from below with tunnels”.^[3] Vitruvius already uses it as a preposition with the accusative,^[2][6] and this use spread in Late Latin, in the Vulgate and the grammarians,^[7][6] and in medieval Latin, meaning “beneath, under”.^[8] It is the source of Italian sotto,^[6][1] Romanian subt and Friulian sot.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[5][3]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it in On Agriculture.^[4][6][5]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it as a preposition.^[2][6][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy writes of the Macedonians attacking from below with mines.^[3][5]

Meanings

Adverb

1. Below, underneath, beneath.^[2][3][9]

Preposition

1. (with accusative) Under, beneath, lower than.^[2][7][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson