superstes

Forms

superstes m or f (genitive superstitis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from super- (“over, above”) and a noun ⟨*-stat-⟩ “one who stands”, from stō (“to stand”);^[2][3][1] Wiktionary takes it from superstō (“to stand over, survive”).^[1] De Vaan derives ⟨stō⟩ from Proto-Italic *sta-ē-je/o- (“to stand”) and Proto-Indo-European *sth₂-eh₁-ie/o- (“to stand”), and counts a stem in ⟨-t-⟩ ⟨*stat-⟩ in compounds among its old formations.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has “close the door; now you alone are witness to my words” in the Truculentus, and the wish that a wife may outlive her husband in the Asinaria.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is one who stands by, a witness, especially in a lawsuit;^[2][3] Festus explains superstitēs as witnesses who are present.^[2][3] In Ovid it is also standing over a fallen enemy, of a wave looking down on the waves it has beaten.^[2]

Its main sense is surviving another's death, as Terence's “a son has been born to Pamphilus;^[2][3][1] I pray the gods he may live”, with a dative or genitive of what is outlived.^[2][3][1] Of fame and writings it is lasting after death, as Ovid's elegies, a work to survive his own fate, and of things remaining when the rest are gone, as in Statius.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “present, surviving, outliving”, and as a noun “survivor”.^[5] In Medieval Latin it is also a foreman or overseer of building works.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a witness and a surviving wife.^[2][7]
• 190–159 BC – Terence of a child who may live.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero.^[7]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of a work that outlives its author.^[2][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Standing over (a fallen enemy).^[2]
2. Standing by as a witness.^[2][3][1]
3. Surviving, outliving;^[2][3][1][5] lasting after death; remaining.^[2]

Noun

1. A survivor.^[1][5]
2. (Medieval Latin) A foreman of building works.^[6]

Word family

• superstitiō

Related words

• superstō
• stō
• supersum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ 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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de