metus
Esperanto
Verb
metus
- conditional of meti
Ido
Verb
metus
- conditional of metar
Latin
Etymology
Of unknown origin. Klingenschmitt connects the word to Old Irish moth m (“astonishment”), which is semantically attractive; however, he does not explain the phonetic mechanisms by which the two words could be related.[1]
Pronunciation
- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [ˈmɛ.tʊs]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [ˈmɛː.tus]
Noun
metus m (genitive metūs); fourth declension
- fear, dread, anxiety, apprehension
- 63 BCE, Cicero, Catiline Orations Oratio in Catilinam Prima in Senatu Habita.10:
- Magnō mē metū līberābis, dum modo inter mē atque tē mūrus intersit.
- You will free me from a great fear, provided only that a wall lies between you and me.
(Magnō … metū: ablative of separation.)
- You will free me from a great fear, provided only that a wall lies between you and me.
- Magnō mē metū līberābis, dum modo inter mē atque tē mūrus intersit.
- 8 CE – 12 CE, Ovid, Sorrows 1.43–44:
- carminibus metus omnis obest; perditus ēnsem
haesūrum iugulō iam putō iamque meō.- Every fear is harmful to [writing] verses; I have already been destroyed, and now I suspect a sword will be stuck in my throat.
(Even though the poet had been sentenced to live in exile he still feared for his life.)
- Every fear is harmful to [writing] verses; I have already been destroyed, and now I suspect a sword will be stuck in my throat.
- carminibus metus omnis obest; perditus ēnsem
- awe, reverence
Declension
Fourth-declension noun.
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | metus | metūs |
| genitive | metūs | metuum |
| dative | metuī | metibus |
| accusative | metum | metūs |
| ablative | metū | metibus |
| vocative | metus | metūs |
Derived terms
- metuō
- in metū sum (I am in fear)
- meticulōsus
- metum concipiō (I become afraid)
- metum habeō (I am afraid, I entertain fear)
Descendants
- Ibero-Romance:
- Southern Gallo-Romance:
- Gascon: met
- Gallo-Italic:
- ⇒ Vulgar Latin: *metōrōsum (see there for further descendants)
- Borrowings:
- → Italian: meto
References
- “metus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “metus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- “metus”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
- to be comprised under the term 'fear.: sub metum subiectum esse
- a man is paralysed with fear: metus aliquem exanimat (Mil. 24. 65)
- to grow pale with fear: exalbescere metu
- to be completely prostrated by fear: metu fractum et debilitatum, perculsum esse
- to recover from one's fright: a metu respirare (Cluent. 70. 200)
- to recover from one's fright: ex metu se recreare, se colligere
- to be comprised under the term 'fear.: sub metum subiectum esse
- Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002), “mĕtus”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volume 6/2: Mercatio–Mneme, page 62
- Coromines, Joan; Pascual, José Antonio (1985), “miedo”, in Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico [Critical Castilian and Hispanic etymological dictionary][2] (in Spanish), volume IV (Me–Re), Madrid: Gredos, →ISBN, page 66
- ^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008), “metus”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 378
Lithuanian
Noun
metùs
- accusative plural of mẽtas (“time”)