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English
Etymology
From Latin vātēs, from Proto-Indo-European *weh₂t- (“excited, possessed”); cognate with Proto-Celtic *wātis (“seer”) (Gaulish ουατεις, Old Irish fáith, Welsh gwawd) and Proto-Germanic *wōdaz (“mad”) (Old English wōd (“mad, frenzied”), Gothic 𐍅𐍉𐌳𐍃 (wōds, “possessed, mad”), Old High German wuot (“mad, madness”). More at wood (“crazy, mad, insane”) and wode.
Pronunciation
Noun
vates
- A poet or bard who is divinely inspired.
1833 May, “Hayward’s Translation of Goethe’s “Faust””, in Fraser’s Magazine for Town and Country, volume VII, number XLI, London: James Fraser , →OCLC, page 532, column 1:[Percy Bysshe] Shelley, a true vates, was called upon by their divine influence to render some choice passages from this very Faust, which, from confessed inability, [Francis Leveson-]Gower had left unattempted in his precious version, and some which from other motives he had purposely reticensed.
1999, Dennis Richard Danielson, The Cambridge Companion to Milton, Cambridge University Press, page 57:The volume is haunted by the death of the vates (poet-prophet) Orpheus, who failed to revive Eurydice from death and was then torn apart by maenads.
Derived terms
Translations
Anagrams
Latin
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Proto-Italic *wātis, from Proto-Indo-European *wéh₂t-i-s (“seer”), from *weh₂t- (“to be excited”).
Pronunciation
Noun
vātēs m (genitive vātis); third declension
- seer, soothsayer, prophet, prophetess
8 CE,
Ovid,
Fasti 1.585–586:
- at fēlīx vātēs, ut dīs grātissima vīxit,
possidet hunc Iānī sīc dea mēnsē diem.- But the fortunate prophetess, since her life was most pleasing to the gods,
thus as a goddess has a day in this month of Janus.
(The prophetess who became honored as a goddess is Carmenta).
- poet, poetess, bard
- Synonym: poēta
- oracle
Declension
Third-declension noun (i-stem).
Derived terms
Descendants
References
- “vates”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “vates”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- vates 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)
- vates in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- De Vaan, Michiel (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN
Latvian
Noun
vates f
- genitive singular of vate
Spanish
Noun
vates m pl
- plural of vate
Volapük
Noun
vates
- dative plural of vat