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The corpus record — Latin

laetus

laetus

flourishing, rich; happy

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

What it meant

1. laetus — de Vaan

laetus 'flourishing, rich; happy' [adj. o/a] (Naev,+) Derivatives: laetare 'to gladden' (Andr.+), laetarl 'to be glad' (P1.+), laetitia 'joy' (PI.+), laetitudd 'joy' (Acc.+), laeiiscere 'to delight' (Sis.+); laetificare 'to gladden, fertilize' (P1.+), laetificus 'joyful' (Enn.+), Under the assumption that 'fat, rich' is the older meaning, WH and IEW connect lar(i)dus 'bacon' and largus 'generous', which would … — [de Vaan, s.v. laetus, p. 337]

2. laetus — Lewis & Short

laetus, a, um, adj.Sanscr. root prī-, to cheer; prētis, joy, love; cf. Gr. prau+/s, pra=|os; Germ. Friede, Freude; cf. also Latin gentile name, Plaetorius,

I joyful, cheerful, glad, gay, joyous, rejoicing, pleased, delighted, full of joy.
I Lit., constr. absol., with de, the gen., the inf., or acc. and inf.
(a) Absol.: laeti atque erecti, Cic. Font. 11, 33: alacres laetique, id. Sest. 1, 1: vultus, id. Att. 8, 9, 2: dies laetissimi, id. Lael. 3, 12.—In neutr. plur. as subst.: litterae tuae partim laeta partim tristia continent, Plin. Ep. 5, 9, 1.—
(b) With de: laetus est de amica, Ter. Ad. 2, 2, 45.—
(g) With gen.: laetus animi et ingenii, Vell. 2, 93, 1; Tac. A. 2, 26: laborum, Verg. A. 11, 73: irae, Sil. 17, 308.—
(d) With inf.: laetus uterque Spectari superis, Sil. 9, 453.—(e) With acc. and inf.: laetus sum, fratri obtigisse quod volt, Ter. Phorm. 5, 4, 1: laeta est abs te (donum) datum esse, id. Eun. 3, 1, 2.—
II Transf.
A Doing a thing with joy, cheerful, ready, willing: senatus supplementum etiam laetus decreverat, Sall. J. 84, 3: descendere regno, Stat. Th. 2, 396: fatebere laetus nec surdum esse, etc., Juv. 13, 248.—
B Delighting or taking pleasure in a thing; with abl. or inf.
(a) With abl.: et laetum equino sanguine Concanum, Hor. C. 3, 4, 34: laetus stridore catenae, Juv. 14, 23: plantaribus horti, id. 13, 123.—
(b) With inf.: et ferro vivere laetum Vulgus, Sil. 9, 223.—
C Pleased, satisfied with any thing; delighting in; with abl.: classis Romana haudquaquam laeta praedā rediit, Liv. 27, 31: contentus modicis, meoque laetus, Mart. 4, 77, 2.—With gen.: laeta laborum, Verg. A. 11, 73: laetissimus viae, indulging to the full, Sil. 17, 308.—
D Pleasing, pleasant, grateful: omnia erant facta hoc biduo laetiora, Cic. Att. 7, 26, 1: laetique nuntii vulgabantur, Tac. A. 1, 5: vitium laetissimi fructus, Cic. N. D. 2, 62, 156: virtus haud laeta tyranno, Val. Fl. 1, 30: militibus id nomen, Tac. H. 4, 68.—
E Favorable, propitious, prosperous: venti, Val. Fl. 4, 31: sors, id. 4, 540: bellum, Sil. 10, 552; Plaut. Am. prol. 2: saecula, Verg. A. 1, 605: exta, Suet. Caes. 77: cujus (proelii) initium ambiguum, finis laetior, Tac. A. 12, 40.—
F Fortunate, auspicious, lucky: prodigium, Plin. 11, 37, 77, § 197: augurium, Tac. H. 1, 62: laeta et congruentia exta, id. ib. 2, 4: omina, Petr. 122.—
G Joyous in appearance, delightful, pleasing, beautiful: vite quid potest esse cum fructu laetius, tum aspectu pulchrius? Cic. de Sen. 15, 53: segetes, Verg. G. 1, 1: lupae fulvo nutricis tegmine, id. A. 1, 275: ferarum exuviis, Ov. M. 1, 475: indoles, Quint. 2, 4, 4: colles frondibus laeti, Curt. 5, 4, 9.—
2 In partic., in econom. lang., fertile, rich, of soil: ager, Varr. R. R. 1, 23: laeta Clitumni pascua, Juv. 12, 13.—Of cattle, fat: glande sues laeti redeunt, Verg. G. 2, 520.—
3 Abundant, copious: laeta magis pressis manabunt flumina mammis, Verg. G. 3, 310; 3, 494: lucus laetissimus umbrae, id. A. 1, 441.—Of style, etc., rich, copious, agreeable: nitidum quoddam genus est verborum et laetum, Cic. de Or. 1, 18, 81.—Of the author: (Homerus) laetus ac pressus, Quint. 10, 1, 46.—
H Pleasant, agreeable: dicendi genus tenue laetioribus numeris corrumpere, Quint. 9, 4, 17.—In neutr. sing., adverbially: laetumque rubet, with joy, with pleasure, Stat. Ach. 1, 323.— Hence, adv.: laetē, joyfully, gladly, cheerfully.
1 Lit. (class.): auctorem senatus exstinctum laete atque insolenter tulit, Cic. Phil. 9, 3, 7: laete an severe dicere, Quint. 8, 3, 40.—Comp., Vell. 2, 45, 3: neque refert cujusquam Punicas Romanasve acies laetius extuleris, more eagerly, Tac. A. 4, 33: aliquid ausi laetius aut licentius, Quint. 2, 4, 14.—Sup.: laetissime gaudere, Gell. 3, 15, 2.—
2 Transf., fruitfully, abundantly, luxuriantly: seges laete virens, Plin. 33, 5, 27, § 89.—Comp.: truncus laetius frondet, more fruitfully, more luxuriantly, Col. 5, 9, 10; cf. Plin. 16, 31, 56, § 130.—
3 Lightly, not severely, without seriousness: si quis putet nos laetius fecisse quam orationis severitas exigat, Plin. Ep. 2, 5, 6.

3. laetus — Lewis & Short

laetus, i, m., in late Lat.,

I a foreign bondman who received a piece of land to cultivate, for which he paid tribute to his master, a serf, Amm. 20, 8, 13; Eum. Pan. 21, 1.—Hence,
A laeta, ōrum, n., the land so cultivated, Cod. Th. 7, 20, 10.—
B laetĭcus, a, um, adj., of or belonging to a laetus: laeticae terrae, Cod. Th. 13, 11, 9.

In the wild

6 of 1,549 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. laetus (scan p. 337; entry #860).
  • Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. laetus (scan p. 361; entry #5674).

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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.