vester

Forms

vester (feminine vestra, neuter vestrum); first/second-declension determiner (nominative masculine singular in -er), with locative^[1] The old spelling is voster, used before about 150 BC.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *westero- (“your (plural)”), formed on the stem of vōs with the contrastive suffix also seen in noster; de Vaan tentatively reconstructs a PIE possessive *us-tero-.^[2][3][1] The older Latin form ⟨voster⟩ has its ⟨o⟩ by analogy with ⟨noster⟩, while Umbrian uestra (“your”) keeps the ⟨e⟩.^[2]

The genitive plural ⟨vestrum⟩ of ⟨vōs⟩ was originally the genitive plural of this adjective.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Naevius on;^[2] Plautus has animī vostrī “of your minds”.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

Vester means “your, yours” when several people are addressed: what belongs to them, people known to them, and, with the force of an objective genitive, “of you” (vester cōnspectus “the sight of you”).^[3] Vestrum est means “it is your part, your concern”.^[3]

It often includes others besides those addressed (“you and your kind”), so that vestrī is “your school, your party”; sometimes it seems to refer to a single person.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 235–200 BC – First found in Naevius.^[2]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses the old form voster.^[4][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero: vestrum est hoc, iūdicēs, “this is your part, judges”.^[3][5]

Meanings

Determiner

1. your, yours (of several people).^[3][4]
2. Known to you, associated with you.^[3]
3. Of you, towards you.^[3]
4. vestrum est, it is your part or concern.^[3]
5. Of you and your kind;^[3] (masculine plural as noun) your school, your party.^[3]

Related words

• vōs
• noster
• tuus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de