The corpus record — Latin

catus1

clever, shrewd

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

Where it lives

Parentalia 1 · 3.85/10k
Mosella 1 · 3.08/10k
Epigrammata Ausonii de diversis rebus 1 · 2.74/10k
Menaechmi 2 · 2.11/10k
Mostellaria 2 · 2.08/10k
Poenulus 2 · 1.81/10k
Epidicus 1 · 1.54/10k
Carmina 2 · 1.5/10k
De Republica 3 · 1.38/10k
Florida 1 · 1.27/10k
Persa 1 · 1.27/10k
Truculentus 1 · 1.22/10k

Densest 12 of 35 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. catus — de Vaan

catus 'clever, shrewd' [adj. o/d] (PL+) Derivatives: Cato [cogn.] (Fasti Consulages Capitolini+). Pit. *ΑαΑκ PIE *kh$-to- 'sharpened'. IE cognates: Olr. cath 'wise, able', Skt sita- 'sharpened'. Adj. derived from a PIE root for 'to sharpen'; in Italic, it has developed from 'sharp1 to 'clever*. According to Varro, catus is Sabine, which is possible, but would not affect the Pit. reconstruction. BibL: WH I: 183f, EM … — [de Vaan, s.v. catus, p. 113]

2. cătus — Lewis & Short

cătus, a, um, adj.root ka-; Sanscr. ça-, to whet, sharpen; cf. cos, cautes, cuneus; Sabine, = acutus, acc. to Varr. L. L. 7, § 46, p. 90 Bip.. *

I Sharp to the hearing, clear-sounding, shrill (cf. acutus, 2.): jam cata signa fere sonitum dare voce parabant, Enn. ap. Varr. l. l. (Ann. 447 Vahl.). —

II Transf. to intellectual objects, in a good and bad sense.

A In a good sense, clear-sighted, intelligent, sagacious, wise, opp. stultus (in prose probably never naturalized; hence Cic., in prose, adds ut ita dicam; v. the foll.): catus Aelius Sextus, Enn. ap. Cic. Tusc. 1, 9, 18 (Ann. v. 335 Vahl.); Plaut. Most. 1, 3, 29; id. Ps. 2, 3, 15; Ter. And. 5, 2, 14 Don. and Ruhnk.; Hor. C. 1, 10, 3: prudens et, ut ita dicam, catus, Cic. Leg. 1, 16, 45.—Constr. with inf.: jaculari, Hor. C. 3, 12, 10.—With gen.: legum, Aus. Mos. 400.—Of abstract things: dicta, Enn. Ann. 519 Vahl.: consilium, Plaut. Ep. 2, 2, 75.—

B In a bad sense, sly, crafty, cunning, artful ( = callidus, astutus): cata est et callida, Plaut. Pers. 4, 4, 71; so id. Poen. 5, 2, 147; id. Most. 5, 2, 21; id. Trin. 3, 2, 51; Hor. Ep. 2, 2, 39.—Adv.: cătē, conform. to II. A.: sapienter, docte et cordate et cate, Plaut. Poen. 1, 1, 3; id. Men. 2, 3, 61; Cic. Arat. 304.—Comp. and sup. not in use in the adj. or in the adv.

3. cătus — Lewis & Short

cătus, i, m.,

I a male cat (post-class.), Pall. Mart. 9, 4; scanned, cātus, Poët. ap. Anth. Lat. 5, p. 162, 3 al.

In the wild

6 of 55 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. catus (scan p. 113; entry #226). Root candidates: *kh2u-, *keh2u-.
Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. catus (scan p. 130; entry #1911).

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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.