vates

See also: vätes

English

WOTD – 27 April 2013, 27 April 2014, 27 April 2015

Etymology

From Latin vātēs, from Proto-Indo-European *weh₂t- (“excited, possessed”); cognate with Proto-Celtic *wātis (“seer”) (Gaulish ουατεις, Old Irish fáith, Welsh gwawd) and Proto-Germanic *wōdaz (“mad”) (Old English wōd (“mad, frenzied”), Gothic 𐍅𐍉𐌳𐍃 (wōds, “possessed, mad”), Old High German wuot (“mad, madness”). More at wood (“crazy, mad, insane”) and wode.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈveɪtiz/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

vates (plural vates)

1. A poet or bard who is divinely inspired.
   • 1833 May, “Hayward’s Translation of Goethe’s “Faust””, in Fraser’s Magazine for Town and Country, volume VII, number XLI, London: James Fraser […], →OCLC, page 532, column 1:

     [Percy Bysshe] Shelley, a true vates, was called upon by their divine influence to render some choice passages from this very Faust, which, from confessed inability, [Francis Leveson-]Gower had left unattempted in his precious version, and some which from other motives he had purposely reticensed.

   • 1999, Dennis Richard Danielson, The Cambridge Companion to Milton, Cambridge University Press, page 57:

     The volume is haunted by the death of the vates (poet-prophet) Orpheus, who failed to revive Eurydice from death and was then torn apart by maenads.

Derived terms

• sacer vates

Translations

divinely inspired poet

Bulgarian: оват (ovat) Catalan: vat m Finnish: vaatti French: vate (fr) Hungarian: vátesz (hu) Portuguese: vate (pt) m or f Spanish: vate (es) m Welsh: vates

Anagrams

• Avest., stave, Vesta, evats, Stave, vesta, Sveta

French

Noun

vates

1. plural of vate

Latin

Alternative forms

• vātis

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *wātis, from Proto-Indo-European *wéh₂t-i-s (“seer”), from *weh₂t- (“to be excited”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈwaː.teːs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈvaː.tes]

Noun

vātēs m or f (genitive vātis); third declension

1. seer, soothsayer, diviner, prophet, prophetess
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 4.65:

     Heu, vātum ignārae mentēs!

     Alas, the unknowing minds of diviners!
     (Ambiguity: The statement may refer either to the haruspices accompanying Dido and Anna, or to the sisters’ own misinterpretations of the extispicia.)

   • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 1.585–586:

     at fēlīx vātēs, ut dīs grātissima vīxit,
     possidet hunc Iānī sīc dea mēnsē diem.

     But the fortunate prophetess, since her life was most pleasing to the gods,
     thus as a goddess has a day in this month of Janus.
     (The prophetess who became honored as a goddess is Carmenta).

2. poet, poetess, bard

   Synonym: poēta

3. oracle

Declension

Third-declension noun (i-stem).

	singular	plural
nominative	vātēs	vātēs
genitive	vātis	vātum vātium
dative	vātī	vātibus
accusative	vātem	vātēs vātīs
ablative	vāte	vātibus
vocative	vātēs	vātēs

Derived terms

• vāticinor

Descendants

• Catalan: vat
• English: vates
• French: vate
• Italian: vate
• Portuguese: vate
• Spanish: vate
• → Translingual: Vates

References

• “vates”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “vates”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "vates", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “vates”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• De Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN

Latvian

Noun

vates f

1. genitive singular of vate

Spanish

Noun

vates m pl

1. plural of vate

Volapük

Noun

vates

1. dative plural of vat