The corpus record — Latin

epistula

epistula · f

a written communication

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

Where it lives

Avidius Cassius 12 · 46.01/10k
Pausanias 4 · 45.35/10k
Diadumenus Antoninus 7 · 41.92/10k
Clodius Albinus 10 · 37/10k
Divus Aurelianus 19 · 24.32/10k
Probus 10 · 24.25/10k
Carus et Carinus et Numerianus 6 · 22.59/10k
Letters to Atticus 270 · 21.96/10k
Letters to and from Quintus 40 · 21.8/10k
Divus Claudius 6 · 20.22/10k
Tacitus 6 · 19.44/10k
Letters 100 · 15.43/10k

Densest 12 of 108 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. ĕpistŭla — Lewis & Short

ĕpistŭla (also in Cic. and ante- and post-class., ĕpistŏla, Corss. Ausspr. 2, 141; but cf. Brambach, Hülfsb. p. 35 sq. Ritschl, Opusc. 2, 493 note), ae, f., = e)pistolh/.

I In gen., a written communication, a letter, epistle (cf.: litterae, codicilli): venio nunc ad tuas litteras, quas pluribus epistolis accepi, Cic. Q. Fr. 3, 1, 3, § 8; Plaut. Bacch. 3, 6, 32; 4, 9, 83; id. Mil. 4, 6, 10 et saep.; Cic. Phil. 2, 31; Cic. Verr. 2, 3, 69 fin.; id. Fam. 2, 4 et saep.; Hor. Ep. 2, 2, 22; Ov. H. 15, 219; 17, 1; 18, 217 et saep.: epistolam obsignare, Cic. Att. 8, 6, 1: Narcissus ab epistolis, the secretary, Suet. Claud. 28; cf. ab.—In the plur.: epistulae (cf. litterae), of a single letter (post-class.), Just. 1, 6, 1; 11, 12, 9; Plin. Ep. 10, 5, 1 al.; Tac. A. 1, 30; cf.: unis aut binis epistolis, Mamert. Grat. Act. Jul. 9, 2.—

II In partic., an imperial letter or reply, stating the emperor's will as law (cf.: rescriptum, decretum, edictum), Just. Inst. 1, 2, 6; Front. Aq. 105 et saep.

2. epistula — Walde–Hofmann

epistula (-o-), -ae f. „Brief“, eig. „Sendung“ (Ernout-Meillet 293; nachkl. Pl. -«e auch von éinem Schreiben [wie gr. Enıotokal, ypdupara], Wackernagel Synt. I 97; seit Plaut, -äris seit Mart., -Arius seit 4. Jh., -olium aus emortökıov seit Catull, -olicus aus Emiotolıkdg Varro): altes Lw. (-u- aus -o- wie in paenula) aus gr. &motoAn ds., woraus auch got. afpistatle (aus dem Lat. Akk. Pl aípistulans, Schulze Berl. … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. epistula, p. 442]

In the wild

epistula Cicero, Letters to Atticus 5.21.3
epistulas Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 7.25.p1
epistula Augustine, Epistulae. Selections. 51.2
epistulas Pliny the Younger, Letters 9.2.1
epistulam Augustine, Epistulae. Selections. 29.5
epistula Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares 1.9.26

6 of 1,275 attestations shown.

Where it came from

Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. epistula (scan p. 223; entry #3463).
Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. epistula (scan p. 442; entry #1016).

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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.