Etymologically
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vetus

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈwɛ.tʊs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈvɛː.tus][1]

Forms

vetus (genitive veteris, comparative vetustior or veterior, superlative vetustissimus or veterrimus); third-declension one-termination adjective (non-i-stem)[1]

Etymology

It continues Proto-Italic *wetos- (“year”), Proto-Indo-European *wet-os- (“year”), a neuter noun “year” used as an adjective, “having years”.[2][1] The old nominative veter in Ennius was remade from the other cases.[2][3] Cognate with Ancient Greek ἔτος (étos, “year”), Hittite witt- (“year”), Sanskrit वत्सर (vatsará, “year”) and Lithuanian vẽtušas (“old”).[2][3] Umbrian vesune names a goddess “of the year”.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus, with the form veter in Ennius.[2] In Plautus an old woman says she is “an old lover of you, old man”.[3] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.[4]

Semantic evolution

It was said of people who had lived long, usually with a sense of experience, and of what had been long in some state or role, like an old friend or a veteran soldier.[3] Of things it meant long-established, worn with age, belonging to the past, or the older of two (Vetus Testāmentum, the Old Testament).[3][5] As a plural noun veterēs meant the ancients.[6]

Its derivative veterānus gave English veteran about 1500.[7] Medieval Latin had Vetus dē Monte, the Old Man of the Mountain, for the Assassin leader.[8][4]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of an old lover.[3][4]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato uses the comparative veterior.[3][4]
  • c. 560–636 AD – Isidore explains the name of the Old Testament.[5][4]
  • c. 1500 – English veteran is recorded.[7]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Old, aged; experienced.[3]
  2. Long-standing, veteran.[3]
  3. (of things) Long-established, ancient.[3]
  4. Old and worn.[3]
  5. Of the past, old-time, (plural noun) the ancients.[3][6]
  6. The old (as against a newer one of the same kind).[3]

Word family

  • vetera
  • veterāmentārius
  • veterānus
  • veterārius
  • veterēs
  • veterēscō
  • veternus
  • veterō
  • vetulus
  • vetustus

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes vetus, what has long existed, from antīquus, what existed formerly and is no more, and says that vetus homo was a man over fifty, senex one over sixty.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d 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 i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
  6. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ 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
  9. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper