Achates

See also: achates and achatés

English

Etymology

From the "fidus Achates" (faithful Achates) of Virgil's Aeneid, the constant companion of Aeneas in his wanderings after the fall of Troy.

Noun

Achates

1. (archaic, poetic) A trusty comrade.
   • 1871, The Field Quarterly Magazine and Review, volume 2, page 152:

     [He] established a kind of hunting colony at Tring, in Hertfordshire, where, with Colonel Charritie as his Achates, Jem Morgan as his huntsman, and "some of the Browns" to look after things, his lordship had kennels of both foxhounds and harriers […]

   • 1979, William Wasserstrom, Van Wyck Brooks, the critic and his critics, page 21:

     It was the full moon of the "Captain" of industry and his Achates, the muckraker. Pragmatism, the one force in American thought since the Spanish War, certainly did not bequeath men a deeper feeling and reverence for life, […]

German

Pronunciation

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Noun

Achates

1. genitive singular of Achat

Latin

Etymology

From Ancient Greek Ἀχάτης (Akhátēs).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈa.kʰa.teːs/, [ˈäkʰät̪eːs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈa.ka.tes/, [ˈäːkät̪es]

Proper noun

Achātēs m sg (genitive Achātae); first declension

1. A river in Sicily, known as the place where agates were found, now the river Dirillo
2. Achates (armorbearer and friend of Aeneas)

Declension

First-declension noun (masculine Greek-type with nominative singular in -ēs), singular only.

Case	Singular
Nominative	Achātēs
Genitive	Achātae
Dative	Achātae
Accusative	Achātēn
Ablative	Achātē
Vocative	Achātē

References

• “Achates”, in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly
• Achates in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.