Etymologically
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vastus

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈwaːs.tʊs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈvas.tus][1]

Forms

vāstus (feminine vāsta, neuter vāstum, comparative vāstior, superlative vāstissimus); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *wāsto-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₁u(e)h₂-sto- (“empty”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- (“empty, wasted”).[2][1] Cognate with Old Irish fás (“empty”), Old High German wuosti (“desolate”) and Old English wēste (“waste”).[2][3] Some scholars separate a word “huge” from “empty”, but de Vaan notes that the dictionaries do not, and the Oxford Latin Dictionary thinks two roots may have merged.[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus uses it.[2] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.[4]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it was first desolate, empty, without people, as Cicero's deserted forum.[3][5] The sea and other great expanses were dreary, and so it came to mean huge and awe-inspiring, of wild beasts and monsters, and clumsy or ungainly.[3] Döderlein ranks it with ingēns and immānis, overwhelming greatness.[6]

In medieval Latin it was deserted, uncultivated, and as a noun waste land.[7] It survives as Italian vasto, French vaste and Romanian vast.[1] Through Old North French it gave English waste, and through French vaste English vast.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.[2][4]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero speaks of a deserted forum.[5][4]
  • c. 1200 – English waste is recorded, from Latin vāstus through Old North French.[8]
  • 1570s – English vast is recorded, from French vaste.[8]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Empty, desolate, deserted; waste.[3][9]
  2. Dreary, of great extent.[3]
  3. Vast, huge, awe-inspiring.[3]
  4. Clumsy, ungainly; uncultivated, rough.[3][1]
  5. (Medieval Latin) As a noun, waste land.[7]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
  7. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  9. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press