sublestus

Unknown. A verbal adjective from an unknown verb or from an unattested noun + -tus (forming adjectives).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [sʊbˈɫɛs.tʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [subˈlɛs.tus]

sublestus (feminine sublesta, neuter sublestum, comparative sublestior, superlative sublestissimus); first/second-declension adjective (Plautine, Old Latin, very rare)

1. weak, feeble or making weak; (by extension) shaky, empty, light, worthless

   Synonyms: īnfirmus, dēbilis; tenuis, levis, frīvolus

   • c. 197 BCE, Plautus, Persa 3.1.16–20:

     Tua istaec potestas est, pater. Verum tamen,
     quamquam res nostrae sunt, pater, pauperculae,
     modice et modeste meliust vitam vivere;
     nam ad paupertatem si admigrant infamiae,
     gravior paupertas fit, fides sublestior.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • c. 190 BCE, Plautus, Bacchides 3.6.13:

     Multi more isto atque exemplo vivont, quos cum censeas
     esse amicos, reperiuntur falsi falsimoniis,
     lingua factiosi, inertes opera, sublesta fide.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 2nd century CE, Sextus Pompeius Festus, edited by Karl Otfried Müller, De Verborum Significatione quae supersunt cum Pauli Epitome, published 1839, page 294; epitomized by Paul the Deacon, 8th c.:

     Sublesta antiqui dicebant infirma et tenuia. Plautus in Persa: "paupertatem […] fides sublestior." id est, infirmior. Idem in Nervolaria vinum ait "sublestissimum", quia infirmos faciat vel corpore vel animo.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • c. 280 CE, Nonius Marcellus, De compendiosa doctrina I 259:

     SVBLESTVM est leve, frivolum. Plautus:
     nam ubi ad paupertatem accessit iam infamia,
     paupertas gravior fit, fides sublestior.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

First/second-declension adjective.

• “sublestus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “sublestus”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.