fatum

See also: fátum

Latin

Etymology

From fātus, perfect active participle of for (“speak”).

Compare typologically Russian рок (rok) (< Proto-Slavic *rokъ, akin to *reťi).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈfaː.tũː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈfaː.t̪um]

Noun

fātum n (genitive fātī); second declension

1. destiny, fate, lot

   Synonyms: fortūna, sors, necessitās

   alicuius fatum est/ alicui fatum est + infinitive ― someone is fated to ...

   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 1.1–3:

     Arma virumque canō, Trōiae quī prīmus ab ōrīs
     Ītaliam, fātō profugus, Lāvīniaque vēnit
     lītora, [...].

     I sing of arms and a man, exiled by fate, who first came from the coasts of Troy to Italy and the shores of Lavinium.
     (Here, “by fate” [fātō] is an ablative of cause, meaning “because of,” or “on account of.” The epic of Aeneas and his band of refugees begins: divine fate compels their actions and will propel the story. See: Aeneid, Troy, Italy, Lavinium.)

2. (in the plural) death

   Synonyms: mors, fūnus, exitus, perniciēs, interitus, somnus, fīnis, sopor

3. (of a god) speech
4. utterance, declaration, proclamation, prediction, prophecy

   Synonyms: praedictiō, praedictum, prophētīa

   • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 1.481–482:

     sīc erat in fātīs; nec tē tua culpa fugāvit, sed deus

     Thus it was in the prophecies: no fault of yours has exiled you, but a god.

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

	singular	plural
nominative	fātum	fāta
genitive	fātī	fātōrum
dative	fātō	fātīs
accusative	fātum	fāta
ablative	fātō	fātīs
vocative	fātum	fāta

Derived terms

• Fāta
• fātidicus
• fātifer
• fātiloquus

Descendants

Descendants

• Catalan: fat
• Albanian: fat
• → English: fate
• Italian: fato
• Old French: feie
• Portuguese: fado
• Spanish: hado
• → Proto-Brythonic: *fọd
  • Middle Welsh: ffawt
    • Welsh: ffawd

See also

• fātus

Participle

fātum

1. inflection of fātus:
   1. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter singular
   2. accusative masculine singular

References

• “fatum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• fatum in Enrico Olivetti, editor (2003-2025), Dizionario Latino, Olivetti Media Communication
• “fatum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “fatum”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers

Old English

Noun

fatum

1. dative plural of fæt

Polish

Polish Wikipedia has an article on:

fatum

Wikipedia ^pl

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin fātum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfa.tum/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -atum
• Syllabification: fa‧tum

Noun

fatum n

1. destiny, fate, doom, jinx

Declension

Declension of fatum

	singular	plural
nominative	fatum	fata
genitive	fatum	fatów
dative	fatum	fatom
accusative	fatum	fata
instrumental	fatum	fatami
locative	fatum	fatach
vocative	fatum	fata

Further reading

• fatum in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• fatum in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Romanian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Latin fatum.

Noun

fatum n (uncountable)

1. fate

Declension

Declension of fatum

singular only	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	fatum	fatumul
genitive-dative	fatum	fatumului
vocative	fatumule

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From Latin fatum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fǎːtum/
• Hyphenation: fa‧tum

Noun

fátum m inan (Cyrillic spelling фа́тум)

1. fate, destiny

Declension

Declension of fatum

	singular	plural
nominative	fatum	fatumi
genitive	fatuma	fatuma
dative	fatumu	fatumima
accusative	fatum	fatume
vocative	fatume	fatumi
locative	fatumu	fatumima
instrumental	fatumom	fatumima

References

• “fatum”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2025

West Makian

Etymology

May be the same as West Makian fatung (“to sniff”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɸa.t̪um/

Verb

fatum

1. (transitive) to smell (something)

Conjugation

Conjugation of fatum (action verb)

		singular	plural
			inclusive	exclusive
1st person		tafatum	mafatum	afatum
2nd person		nafatum	fafatum
3rd person	inanimate	ifatum	dafatum
	animate
imperative		nafatum, fatum	fafatum, fatum

References

• Clemens Voorhoeve (1982), The Makian languages and their neighbours‎, Pacific linguistics