LOGOI

The corpus record — Latin

carus1

carus1

dear, precious, esteemed; affectionate

Generated live from the audited Latin corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

Where it lives

Densest 12 of 213 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. carus — de Vaan

carus 'dear, precious, esteemed; affectionate' [adj. ο/α] (Ρ1.+) Derivatives: caritas 'dearness; love' (Cato+). Pit. *karo- 'dear'. It. cognates: Ven. kanci [dat.sg.f.] 'dear' (*fc5-w/-?), karis [nom.sg.] 'caritas' (*M-ri-?); Fal. karai [dat.sg.f.] 'dear'. PIE *keh2-ro- 'desired / desirable'. IE cognates: Gaulish PN in Cam-, -carus, Latv. — [de Vaan, s.v. carus, p. 109]

2. cārus — Lewis & Short

cārus (not chārus; in Inscrr. often kārus, a, um, adj.Sanscr. kan, to be beloved; kāru, agreeable,

Inscr. Orell. 1175; 2417 al.),
I dear, precious, valued, esteemed (pass., freq. and class. in prose and poetry; syn.: dilectus, amatus, acceptus, gratus; opp. vilis, neglectus, contemptus; carum esse; syn. diligi); act., loving, affectionate, Verg. A. 1, 646: carum ipsum verbum est amoris, ex quo amicitiae nomen est ductum, Cic. N. D. 1, 44, 122; id. Off. 2, 8, 29; id. Fin. 3, 20, 66; 5, 10, 29: ego illum scio, quam carus sit cordi meo, Plaut. Men. 2, 1, 21; id. Ep. 1, 2, 30: neque meo cordi esse quemquam cariorem, Ter. Eun. 1, 2, 121: ut dis inmortalibus cari simus et ab iis diligamur, Cic. Fin. 3, 20, 66: dis carus ipsis, Hor. C. 1, 31, 13: laeta pax cariores Sabinas viris fecit, Liv. 1, 13, 6: populo carus atque jucundus, Cic. Cat. 4, 6, 11: patriae, Hor. Ep. 1, 3, 29; Lucr. 1, 730: parentes, id. 3, 85: cari sunt parentes, cari liberi, propinqui, familiares: sed omnes omnium caritates patria una complexa est, Cic. Off. 1, 17, 57: mater carissima, Asin. ap. Quint. 9, 2, 34.—So pater, Verg. A. 2, 707; Ov. M. 2, 649: genitor, Verg. A. 10, 789; Ov. M. 1, 486: genitrix, Verg. A. 1, 689: nutrix, id. ib. 4, 634: conjux, Ov. M. 11, 727: Thisbe, id. ib. 4, 143: nata, id. ib. 4, 222: nepotes, Cat. 64, 381: pignora, nati, Ov. F. 3, 218; so also pignora, nepotes, id. M. 3, 134; cf.: caput nepotis, Cat. 68, 120: frater carissimus atque amantissimus, Cic. Cat. 4, 2, 3: homines mihi carissimi et amicissimi, id. de Or. 2, 4, 15: illa, quam Ego animo Egregie caram habuerim, Ter. And. 1, 5, 38; so, carum habere aliquem, Cic. Fam. 1, 7, 11 fin. (with amare); id. Balb. 26, 59 (with diligere): omnis suos caros habet, me quidem se ipso cariorem, id. Att. 10, 11, 1: parentes carissimos habere, id. Red. Sen. 1, 2; Nep. Att. 10, 5; Quint. 5, 10, 74: ex decessu carissimorum, Sen. Cons. ad Marc. 7, 1: omnium societatum nulla est carior, Cic. Off. 1, 17, 57: patria, Hor. S. 2, 2, 104: Athenae, Cat. 64, 81: carmina legenti, Prop. 3 (4), 2, 13. crines, id. 1, 17, 21: simulacra, Ov. M. 14, 112: amplexus, id. ib. 9, 750 et saep.—Prov. uses: patria mihi vită meă multo est carior, Cic. Cat. 1, 11, 27; so id. Sest. 20, 45; cf. Cat. 68, 159: carius oculis, id. 82, 2; 104, 2; Ov. M. 7, 847 al.—Subst.: cāri mei, my loved ones, Plaut. Men. 1, 1, 29 al.—In a double sense with II., Plaut. Bacch. 2, 3, 76 sq.; id. Men. 1, 1, 29 sq.; cf.: hoc est gratum nobisque est carius auro, Cat. 107, 3.—
II Prop. (opp. vilis), dear, costly, of a high price: venio ad macellum, rogito pisces: indicant Caros, agninam caram, caram bubulam, cara omnia, Plaut. Aul. 2, 8, 3 sq.: quod ei amorem Carissimum... eum confeci sine sumptu, Ter. Eun. 5, 4, 5: quom cara annona sit, Plaut. Capt. 3, 1, 35: coquos carissimus, id. Ps. 3, 2, 59.—So annona, Plaut. Stich. 1, 3, 25; Ter. And. 4, 4, 7; (comp.) Cic. Div. 2, 27, 59; (sup.) id. Dom. 6, 14 et saep.: aurum argentumque caelando carius fecimus (cf. just before: auximus pretia rerum), Plin. 33, praef. 2, § 4; cf.: cariora pretia facere, Just. 16, 4, 19.—With abl. pretii: quod non opus est, asse carum est. Cato ap. Sen. Ep. 94, 28; so, trecentis, Plaut. Pers. 4, 4, 118.—Adv. (rare).
A cārē.
1 Dearly, at a high price: vēnire, Varr. R. R. 3, 5, 2; comp., Cic. Dom. 44, 115; Suet. Calig. 27; sup., Sen. Ep. 42, 5.—
2 Highly: carius aestimare, Plancus ap. Cic. Fam. 10, 4, 2.—
B cārō (acc. to II.), dearly, at a high price, Dig. 19, 1, 13, § 3.

3. Cārus — Lewis & Short

Cārus, i,

I a Roman cognomen.
I T. Lucretius Carus, the poet; v. Lucretius.—
II M. Aurelius Carus, the Roman emperor, Eutr. 9, 12 al.—
III Another poet, Ov P. 4, 16, 7.

4. Cărўus — Lewis & Short

Cărўus, a, um, v. Caryae, II. B. 3.

In the wild

6 of 1,325 attestations shown.

Where it came from

  • de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) Treated in de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) s.v. carus (scan p. 109; entry #214). Root candidates: *karo-.
  • Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. carus (scan p. 126; entry #1835).

Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.