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The corpus record — Latin

fortuitus

fortuitus · adj

that takes place by chance

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 75 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

fortŭī^tus — Lewis & Short

fortŭī^tus (i long, a, um, adj.forte; analog. with gratuitus,

Hor. C. 2, 15, 17; Phaedr. 2, 4, 4; Aus. Sept. Sap. de Solon. 3; short, Petr. Poët. Sat. 135; Juv. 13, 225; Manil. 1, 182),
I that takes place by chance or accident, casual, accidental, fortuitous (rare but class.): concursio rerum fortuitarum, Cic. Top. 19, 73; cf.: concursus atomorum, id. N. D. 1, 24, 66: concursu quodam fortuito, id. ib. 1, 24, 66: cespes, Hor. C. 2, 15, 17: lutum, Petr. 135: contubernium, Phaedr. 2, 4, 4: subita et fortuita oratio, Cic. de Or. 1, 33, 150: bonum, id. N. D. 3, 36, 87: praesensiones non fortuitae (shortly before: non id fortuito accidisse), id. Div. 2, 53, 109; cf. id. ib. 2, 7, 19: clamores, Quint. 10, 3, 30: pugna, id. 6, 5, 10: sermo, id. 10, 7. 13: nihil esse inordinatum atque fortuitum, id. 1, 10, 46.—In neutr. absol.: etiam illa fortuita aderant omnia, Quint. 6 praef. § 11; 6, 1, 5: fortuitorum laus brevior, id. 3, 7, 12: nihil tam capax fortuitorum quam mare, Tac. A. 14, 3; 15, 48.—Hence, adv.: fortŭī^to (post-class. access. form fortŭī^tu, Lact. 1, 2; Vulg. Num. 35, 22. Also found in some MSS. and edd. in Plaut. Aul. 2, 1, 41; cf. Madv. ad Cic. Fin. 5, 11, 33; Hand, Turs. II. 743; but Ellendt defends it, ad Cic. de Or. 1, 24, 111), by chance, accidentally, fortuitously, casually (very freq.; syn.: casu, forte, temere): ut mihi ne in deum quidem cadere videatur, ut sciat, quid casu et fortuito futurum sit, Cic. Div. 2, 7, 18: non enim temere nec fortuito sati et creati sumus, id. Tusc. 1, 49, 118: temere ac fortuito, id. Or. 55, 186; id. Off. 1, 29, 103; Liv. 2, 28, 1; reversing the order: partitio non est fortuito nec temere facta, Cic. Sull. 4; 13: non fortuito sed consilio, id. Rep. 2, 16 fin.: non fortuito aut sine consilio, Caes. B. G. 7, 20, 1: donata consulto, non fortuito nata, Cic. Leg. 1, 8, 25: immoderate et fortuito, id. Univ. 13: sive major aliqua causa atque divinior hanc vim ingenuit: sive hoc ita fit fortuito, id. Fin. 5, 11, 33: quod verbum tibi non excidit fortuito: scriptum, meditatum, cogitatum attulisti, id. Phil. 10, 2 fin.: fortuito in sermonem incidisse, id. de Or. 1, 24, 111; cf.: fortuito aliquid concluse apteque dicere, id. Or. 53, 177.

Where it came from

  • Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. fortuitus (scan p. 462; entry #7439). Root candidates: *neptu-.

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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.