cassus Latin · revision 6585

16 Oct 2026, 11:32 by bogdan “New Latin entry (sources: de Vaan, OLD, Lewis & Short, TLL...)”
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+ {{infobox|confidence=uncertain|formation=derivation|attested=Plautus}}
+ 
+ ==Pronunciation==
+ * IPA (Classical): [ˈkas.sʊs]^(Wiktionary)
+ * IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈkas.sus]^(Wiktionary)
+ 
+ ==Forms==
+ '''cassus''' (feminine cassa, neuter cassum); first/second-declension adjective^(Wiktionary)
+ 
+ ==Etymology==
+ The OLD tentatively takes it as a participle of [[careō]] “to lack”.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010) Wiktionary sees a verbal adjective from the root of ''careō'' and [[castus]] “pure”, perhaps from [[ine-pro|*ḱes-|t=to cut]], as Watkins also proposes.^(Wiktionary)^(Etymonline)
+ 
+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==
+ Köbler's first source is Plautus, who has an empty nut and ''virgō dōte cassa'' “a girl without a dowry”.^(Köbler 2010)^(Gaffiot 2016) Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^(Köbler 2010)
+ 
+ ==Semantic evolution==
+ It meant devoid of, lacking, as Lucretius' body deprived of light, and of seeds and stalks empty, hollow, as Plautus' nut and Ovid's barren reed.^(OLD 2012)^(Gaffiot 2016)^(Lewis & Short 1879) It meant insubstantial, empty of meaning, of fears baseless, as in Lucretius, and fruitless, vain, as in Virgil, with ''in cassum'' “in vain”.^(OLD 2012) Lewis and Short call it mostly poetic.^(Lewis & Short 1879)
+ 
+ In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant useless, vain, empty.^(Stelten 1995) A Late Latin verb ''cassāre'' “to annul”, from it, gave Old French ''casser'' and so one source of [[en|quash]] “to make void”.^(Etymonline)
+ 
+ ==Timeline==
+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of an empty nut and of a girl without a dowry.^(Gaffiot 2016)^(Köbler 2010)
+ * 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of a body without light and of baseless fears.^(OLD 2012)^(Gaffiot 2016)^(Köbler 2010)
+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of vain efforts.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)
+ 
+ ==Meanings==
+ ===Adjective===
+ # Devoid (of), lacking.^(OLD 2012)
+ # [[m|en|Empty]], hollow.^(OLD 2012)
+ # Insubstantial; empty of meaning.^(OLD 2012)
+ # Baseless, unfounded.^(OLD 2012)
+ # Fruitless, [[m|en|vain]], ''in cassum'', in vain.^(OLD 2012)
+ 
+ ==Word family==
+ * [[cassō]]
+ * [[incassus]]
+ 
+ ==Related words==
+ * [[careō]]
+ * [[incassum]]
+ * [[en|quash]]
+ 
+ ==References==
+ {{reflist}}