Latin edit

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

Unknown. Suggestions include Proto-Indo-European *kéywelos (alone), but root obscure and suffix unexplained, see also Sanskrit केवल (kévala, alone); possibly a suffixation of Proto-Indo-European *koyl- *keh₂i-lo- (safe, unharmed, whole),[1] via unattested *cael.

Pronunciation edit

Adjective edit

caelebs (genitive caelibis); third-declension one-termination adjective

  1. unmarried, single
    Synonym: vacuus
    • Horatius, epistulae, liber I. In: Horace Satires, Epistles and Ars poetica with an English translation by H. Rushton Fairclough, 1942, p. 258 f.:
      Nil ait esse prius, melius nil caelibe vita.
      Si non est, iurat bene solis esse maritis.
      "Nothing," he says, "is finer or better than a single life." If it is not, he swears that only the married are well off.

Declension edit

Third-declension one-termination adjective (non-i-stem).

Number Singular Plural
Case / Gender Masc./Fem. Neuter Masc./Fem. Neuter
Nominative caelebs caelibēs
Genitive caelibis caelibum
Dative caelibī caelibibus
Accusative caelibem caelebs caelibēs
Ablative caelibe caelibibus
Vocative caelebs caelibēs

Because of the word's meaning and the fact that neuter nouns are typically inanimate, neuter uses of the adjective are expected to be rare or absent (although metonymic use, as in Horace's caelibe vita, would be theoretically possible). No neuter nominative/accusative/vocative plural form is attested in the corpus of Classical Latin texts. Some New Latin grammars give the form as *caeliba,[2] which is consistent with the consonant-stem inflection in the rest of the paradigm: note however that only a few positive adjectives have attested consonant-stem neuter plural forms in -a.

Derived terms edit

Descendants edit

  • Galician: ceibe (free to roam)
  • Italian: celibe
  • Sicilian: cèlibbi
  • Spanish: célibe

References edit

  1. ^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008), “caelebs”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 80
  2. ^ Richard Lloyd (1653) The Latine grammar. Or, A guide teaching a compendious way to attaine exact skill in the Latine tongue for a proper congruity and elegant variety of phrases in prose and verse. Published for the common good in continuation of a former guide, teaching to read English rightly, and write accordingly., page 54: “All Adjectives or Substantives neuter increasing short, and monosyllable Substantives that end in us encreasing long, make the Nominative plurall in a. and the Genitive plurall in um as caeliba caelibum

Further reading edit

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