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English
Noun
pietas
- plural of pieta
Latin
Etymology
From Proto-Italic *pwījotāts. Equivalent to pius (“pious, devout”) + -tās (“-ty, -dom”).
Pronunciation
Noun
pietās f (genitive pietātis); third declension
- dutiful conduct, sense of duty and responsibility
29 BCE – 19 BCE,
Virgil,
Aeneid 1.9–11:
- quidve dolēns rēgīna deum tot volvere cāsūs
īnsignem pietāte virum tot adīre labōrēs
impulerit.- Or what aggrieving the queen of the gods that she would have driven a man – distinguished by piety – to so many turns of misfortunes, to undergo so many trials?
(These opening lines pose the epic’s enduring question: How can it be that someone dutifully responsible to gods, family, and country – the ancient Roman ideal of “pietās” – should nevertheless suffer? Notes: “of the gods” : genitive plural; “ would have driven” : perfect active subjunctive. See: Pietas.)
- (to the gods) piety, conscientiousness, scrupulousness
- (to one's parents, children, relatives, country, benefactors, etc.) duty, dutifulness, affection, love, loyalty, patriotism, gratitude
- gentleness, kindness, tenderness, pity, compassion
- Synonyms: indulgentia, beneficium, cōmitās, benignitās, benevolentia, venia, misericordia, eleēmosyna
- Antonyms: ferōcitās, crūdēlitās, feritās, sevēritās
Declension
Third-declension noun.
Derived terms
Descendants
References
- “pietas”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “pietas”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- pietas in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
- pietas in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- “pietas”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
- “pietas”, in William Smith, editor (1848), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray