The corpus record — Latin

letum

death

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

Where it lives

Cupido cruciatur 2 · 27.14/10k
De Regibus 1 · 22.57/10k
Lydia, Appendix Vergiliana 1 · 18.76/10k
Epitaphia heroum qui bello Troico interfuerunt 2 · 16.67/10k
Octavia 7 · 13.38/10k
Punica 99 · 12.98/10k
Phaedra 8 · 11.25/10k
In Rufinum 6 · 10.47/10k
de Bello Gothico 4 · 9.92/10k
Phoenissae 4 · 9.78/10k
Ephemeris id est totius diei negotium 1 · 7.71/10k
Troades 5 · 7.34/10k

Densest 12 of 73 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. letum — de Vaan

letum 'death' [n. ο] (Ρ1.+) Pit Veto-, PIE *leh r to- [n.]. IE cognates: OCS letb cit is possible, allowed' [f ], Ru. let' (arch.) 'it is possible, allowed' < *leh r ti-; OCS leto 'summer, year', Ru. leto 'summer, (pi.) levir age, years' < PIE *lehrtom; OIc. lad, OE Iced 'land', Go. unleds 'poor' (Schaffher 2001:241). May be derived from a ppp. *leh r to- 'let, let g o \ substantivized as *leh r to- 'letting go' > … — [de Vaan, s.v. letum, p. 349]

2. lētum — Lewis & Short

lētum (sometimes written lēthum, from a supposed connection with lh/qh), i, n.acc. to Varr. L. L. 7, § 42 Müll., and Paul. ex Fest. p. 115 Müll., from lh/qh; more prob. acc. to Prisc. p. 665 and 898 P., from leo, whence also deleo; root lī-; cf. Sanscr. vi-lī, to dissolve; Gr. li/mnh, limh/n, loimo/s.

I death (ante-class., and in the class. period mostly poet.): ollus apparet in funeribus indictivis, cum dicitur: ollus leto datus est (qs. was given up to oblivion), Varr. L. L. 7, § 42 Müll.—The phrase leto datus, dead: leto dare, to kill, often occurs: sos leto datos divos habento, Cic. Leg. 2, 9, 22: quorum liberi leto dati sunt in bello, Enn. ap. Non. 15, 13 (Trag. v. 378 Vahl.): qui te leto dabit, Pac. ib. 355, 18 (Trag. Rel. p. 79 Rib.); Verg. A. 5, 806; 11, 172; 12, 328; Ov. H. 2, 147: utrumque largus leto dedit ingenii fons, Juv. 10, 119; Phaedr. 1, 21, 9; 3, 16, 18: letum inimico deprecer, Enn. ap. Gell. 6, 16, 10 (Trag. v. 162 Vahl.): emortuus leto malo, Plaut. Aul. 4, 5, 1: letum sibi consciscere, id. Mil. 4, 6, 26: responde, quo leto censes ut peream, id. Merc. 2, 4, 15: leto offerre caput, Lucr. 3, 1041: mortis letique potitus, id. 4, 766: eodem sibi leto, quo ipse interisset, esse pereundum, Cic. Div. 1, 26, 56: turpi leto perire, id. Att. 10, 10, 5: ferre (alicui), Verg. A. 11, 872: leto sternendus, id. ib. 8, 566: sibi parere manu, id. ib. 6, 434: ostentant omnia letum, Cat. 64, 187: leto jam mala finissem, Tib. 2, 6, 19: leto adimere aliquem, to save from death, Hor. C. 3, 22, 3: leto se eripere, Verg. A. 2, 134: pari leto affici, Nep. Reg. 3, 2: me pessimo leto adficere, Liv. 22, 53, 11: novo genere leti mergi, id. 1, 51, 9; 2, 40, 10: oppetere, id. 45, 26.—

B Personified: consanguineus Leti Sopor, Verg. A. 6, 278. —

II Transf., of inanim, subjects, ruin, destruction (poet. for interitus): tenues Teucrum res eripe leto, Verg. A. 5, 690; cf.: tum me, Juppiter Optime Maxime, domum, familiam remque meam pessimo leto afficias, Liv. 12, 53, 11.

3. letum — Walde–Hofmann

letum, -: n. (letus m. CE. 562, 21) „Tod; Untergang, Vernichtung“ (seit Enn. (Wort der gehobenen Sprache, s. IF. 50, 96, Norden Komm? A letälis seit Lucr., lötifer seit Catull, letificus seit Sen. bzw. Lucan. [vgl. mortalis, mortifer, -ficus], ét, -àre seit Culex u. Ov., letábilis [nach exitiábilis usw.] seit Amm.): wohl nach Wood KZ. 45, 68, Walde-P. II 395 als */z-tom „Erschlaffung“ oder ,Hinsinken* zur Wz. … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. letum, p. 819]

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. letum (scan pp. 349-350; entry #897). Root candidates: *deh2wier-, *taikura-, *deh2i-.
Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. létum (scan p. 376; entry #5957).
Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. letum (scan p. 819; entry #1527). Root candidates: *leibho-, *lei-.

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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.