LOGOI

The corpus record — Latin

testis

testis

witness

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

What it meant

1. testis — de Vaan

testis 'witness' [m. /] (PL+) Derivatives: testes, -ium [m.pl] 'testicles' (Pl.+)> testicali [m.pl.] 'testicle' (Varro+), — [de Vaan, s.v. testis, p. 632]

2. testis — Lewis & Short

testis, is, comm. (

I neutr. form: caelum teste vocat, Alcim. 6, 576), one who attests any thing (orally or in writing), a witness (cf. superstes): testes vinctos attines, Plaut. Truc. 4, 3, 63: pluris est oculatus testis unus quam auriti decem, id. ib. 2, 6, 8: deos absentes testes memoras, id. Merc. 3, 4, 42: vosque, dii, testes facio, Liv. 1, 59, 1: deos hominesque se testes facere, id. 34, 11, 8: deūm, quos testes foederum invocabant consules, id. 8, 6, 1: ut manus ad caelum tendens deos testes ingrati animi Magnetum invocaret, id. 35, 31, 13; 39, 51, 12; 41, 25, 4; Curt. 4, 10, 33: apud me ut apud bonum judicem argumenta plus quam testes valent, Cic. Rep. 1, 38, 59: si negem ... quo me teste convinces? id. Phil. 2, 4, 8: satis idonei testes et conscii, id. Font. 7, 16; so, cupidi, conjurati et ab religione remoti, id. ib. 10, 21: religiosus, id. Vatin. 1, 1: incorrupti atque integri, id. Fin. 1, 21, 71: graves, leves, id. Quint. 23, 75: locupletissimi, id. Brut. 93, 322 et saep.: dabo tibi testis nec nimis antiquos nec ullo modo barbaros, id. Rep. 1, 37, 58; so, testes dare in aliquam rem, id. Quint. 23, 75: proferre, id. Balb. 18, 41: adhibere, id. Fin. 2, 21, 67: citare in aliquam rem, Cic. Verr. 2, 2, 59, §146: ut iis testibus in summā pecuniae uteretur, Caes. B. C. 3, 105; cf. id. B. G. 1, 14: testibus uti, Cic. Verr. 1, 18, 55; Quint. 5, 7, 9; 9, 2, 98. — With dependent-clause: testis faciet ilico, Vendidisse me, Ter. Ad. 2, 1, 49: iis utimini testibus appropinquare eorum adventum, Caes. B. G. 7, 77, cf. id. B. C. 3, 90. — Fem.: Venus Cyrenensis, testem te testor mihi, Plaut. Rud. 5, 2, 51: teste deā, Ov. H. 16 (17), 124: nutrix testis fida doloris, Sen. Oct. 76: musa mea, Ov. P. 3, 9, 50: inductā teste in senatu, Haec, inquit, etc., Suet. Claud. 40.—Of things: sidera sunt testes et matutina pruina, Prop. 2, 9, 41: quid debeas, o Roma Neronibus, Testis Metaurum flumen et Hasdrubal Devictus, etc., Hor. C. 4, 4, 38: testis mecum est anulus, Ter. Ad. 3, 2, 49.—
II Transf., an eye-witness, spectator, i. q. arbiter (rare; cf. also conscius): facies bona teste caret, Ov. A. A. 3, 398: puduitque gementem, Illo teste mori, Luc. 9, 887: ac lunā teste moventur, Juv. 6, 311.

3. testis — Lewis & Short

testis, is, m.,

I a testicle, Plaut. Mil. 5, 28; 5, 33: dexter asini testis in vino potus, Plin. 28, 19, 80, § 261: testes pecori ad crura decidui, id. 11, 49, 110, § 263; so in plur., Lucil. ap. Non. 235, 5; Hor. S. 1, 2, 45.—In a pun, with 1. testis: quod amas, amato testibus praesentibus, Plaut. Curc. 1, 1, 31: magnis testibus ista res agetur, Auct. Priap. 2: cf. integritatis, Phaedr. 3, 11, 5.

In the wild

6 of 1,178 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. testis (scan p. 632; entry #1808).
  • Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. testis (scan p. 713; entry #11823).

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.