vetustus

Forms

vetustus (feminine vetusta, neuter vetustum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from vetus (“old”) with the suffix -tus;^[2][1] Wiktionary takes its first sense to be “having many years”, from a time when ⟨vetus⟩ still meant “year”.^[2][1] De Vaan traces ⟨vetus⟩ to Proto-Italic *wetos- (“year”) and Proto-Indo-European *wet-os- (“year”), cognate with Ancient Greek ἔτος (étos, “year”) and Sanskrit वत्सर (vatsará, “year”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Plautus as its first author, and Lewis and Short quote him on old wine.^[4][5] Ennius' Annals have vetusta virum … bella, the ancient wars of men.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is of things that have lasted a long time, old or long-established, as Accius' ancient tower; of diseases it is chronic (Celsus), and of time long-continued, as Lucretius' things worn out by long age.^[2] Of people it is long-established, as Livy's oldest allies.^[2] It is also what belongs to the distant past, and what is typical of old times, archaic, as Cicero's old words.^[2] Lewis and Short call the positive mostly poetic and used almost only of things.^[5]

Church Latin glosses it “old, ancient”, with vetustissimus “very ancient”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of old wine.^[5][4]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius of ancient wars.^[2][4]
• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius of an ancient tower.^[2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of archaic words.^[2][4]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus of chronic diseases.^[2][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Old, ancient, long-established;^[2][1][6] (of diseases) chronic.^[2][1][6]
2. Of the distant past.^[2][1]
3. Old-fashioned, archaic.^[2][1]

Word family

• vetustē
• vetustescō

Related words

• vetera
• veterāmentārius
• veterānus
• veterārius
• veterascō
• veterātor
• veterātōriē
• veterātōrius
• veterātrix
• veterātus
• vetus
• vetustās

Usage notes

Döderlein contrasts antīquus and prīscus, what existed once and is no more, with vetus and vetustus, what has existed for a long time.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper