cunctans

Latin

Alternative forms

• cōntāns

Etymology

Present participle of cūnctor (“to delay; to hesitate”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkuːŋk.tãːs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkuŋk.tans]

Participle

cūnctāns (genitive cūnctantis, comparative cūnctantior, superlative cūnctantissimus, adverb cūnctanter); third-declension one-termination participle

1. delaying
2. hesitating, tarrying, lingering
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 4.133-134:

     Rēgīnam thalamō cūnctantem ad līmina prīmī
     Poenōrum exspectant, [...].

     The queen [yet] lingers in her bedchamber; at the palace doors, the first-men of Carthage await her, [...].
     (Poenorum = Karthaginis.)

3. dawdling

Declension

Third-declension participle.

	singular			plural
	masc./fem.	neuter		masc./fem.	neuter
nominative	cūnctāns			cūnctantēs	cūnctantia
genitive	cūnctantis			cūnctantium
dative	cūnctantī			cūnctantibus
accusative	cūnctantem	cūnctāns		cūnctantēs cūnctantīs	cūnctantia
ablative	cūnctante cūnctantī1			cūnctantibus
vocative	cūnctāns			cūnctantēs	cūnctantia

¹When used purely as an adjective.

References

• “cunctans”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “cunctans”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “cunctans”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.