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The corpus record — Latin

gracilis

gracilis

slender, slight

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

What it meant

1. gracilis — de Vaan

gracilis 'slender, slight' [adj. i] (Ter.+; f gracila in Ten) Derivatives: gracilentus 'slender' (Enn.+), gracilens 'id,' (Laev.), gracilitas 'slenderness' (Varro+), gracilitudo 'id.' (Ace); cracens^ntis 'slender' (Enn.). It. cognates: possibly U. kurflasiii [abhsgm], attn of 'moon': *k(o)rkelasio'waning' (M. Weiss, p.c.). Leumann holds that gracilentus was created as an antonym to corpulentus. The form cracens is … — [de Vaan, s.v. gracilis, p. 282]

2. grăcĭlis — Lewis & Short

grăcĭlis, e (also ante-class. grăcĭlus, a, um, Lucil. ap.

Non. 489, 21; plur.:
I gracilae virgines, Ter. Eun. 2, 3, 22), adj. Sanscr. karc, to be lean; old Lat. cracentes, slender (Enn. Ann. 497 Vahl.); cf. Gr. koloka/nos, thin, slight, slender, slim; meagre, lean (poet. and in Aug. prose; not in Cic.; but cf. gracilitas; syn.: exilis, tenuis, macer).
I Physically: in gracili macies crimen habere potest, Ov. R. Am. 328: gracili sic tamque pusillo, Hor. S. 1, 5, 69: quis multa gracilis te puer in rosa, etc., id. C. 1, 5, 1: puer, Mart. 11, 43, 4: Indi, Juv. 6, 466: capella, Ov. M. 1, 299: equi hominesque paululi et graciles, Liv. 35, 11, 7: arbores succinctioresque, Plin. 16, 10, 17, § 39: resina (opp. pinguis), id. 24, 6, 22, § 33: gracilis et ejuncida vitis, id. 17, 22, 35, § 173: folium, id. 19, 8, 54, § 171: comae et lanuginis instar, Ov. Am. 1, 14, 23: stamen, id. M. 6, 54: catena, id. ib. 4, 176; cf.: vinculum auri, Petr. 126: cacumen, Ov. M. 10, 140: coronae, Juv. 12, 87: viae petauri, Mart. 2, 86, 7; cf. rima, App. M. 4, p. 149: libellus, Mart. 8, 24, 1: umbra, Ov. Tr. 4, 10, 86: spuma, Vulg. Sap. 5, 15.— Comp.: glans brevior et gracilior, Plin. 16, 6, 8, § 19.—Sup.: fuit (Nero) ventre projecto, gracillimis cruribus, Suet. Ner. 51.—
B Transf., opp. to fat or rich, meagre, scanty, poor (post-Aug.): ager, Plin. 17, 22, 35, § 187: clivi, Col. 2, 4, 11: vindemiae, Plin. Ep. 9, 20, 2; 8, 15, 1: gracili Lare vivere, App. Mag. p. 287; cf. pauperies, id. M. 9, p. 219.—
II Trop., of style, simple, plain, unadorned (poet. and in post-Aug. prose): materiae gracili sufficit ingenium. Ov. P. 2, 5, 26; cf.: lusimus, Octavi, gracili modulante Thalia, Verg. Cul. 1: et in carmine et in soluta oratione genera dicendi probabilia sunt tria, quae Graeci xarakth=ras vocant nominaque eis fecerunt a(dro/n, i)sxno/n, me/son. Nos quoque, quem primum posuimus, uberem vocamus, secundum gracilem, tertium mediocrem. Uberi dignitas atque amplitudo est: gracili venustas et subtilitas: medius in confinio est utriusque modi particeps, etc., Gell. 7, 14, 1 sq.; cf.: inter gracile validumque tertium aliquid constitutum est, Quint. 12, 10, 66: praefationes tersae, graciles, dulces, Plin. Ep. 2, 3, 1.—Of the speaker: non possumus esse tam graciles, simus fortiores, Quint. 12, 10, 36.—Hence, adv.: grăcĭlĭter, slenderly.
1 Lit., App. M. 3, p. 130.—
2 Trop.: alia ornatius, alia gracilius esse dicenda, more simply, Quint. 9, 4, 130.

In the wild

6 of 155 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. gracilis (scan p. 282; entry #706). Root candidates: *hurha-.
  • Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. gracilis (scan p. 303; entry #4762).

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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.