Maecenas
(Redirected from maecenas)
English edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
From Middle French mecenas, and its source, Latin Maecēnās (“literary patron”), from the name of Gaius Maecenas (c. 70–8 BCE), Roman statesman and patron of Horace and Virgil.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
Maecenas (plural Maecenases)
- A generous benefactor; specifically, a patron of literature or art.
- 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:
- […] thou art his dear and loving friend, good and gracious Lord and Master, his Maecenas.
- 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, chapter 103, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume IV, London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC, page 367:
- [O]ur young gentleman was shewn into another room, where half a dozen of his fellow-adherents waited for their Mæcenas, who in a few minutes appeared, with a most gracious aspect, received the compliments of the morning, and sat down to breakfast, in the midst of them, without any further ceremony.
- 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 329:
- The government […] maintained one of the largest armies in Europe; it developed what became, by the 1780s, a navy as big as the British; and it played the role of cultural Maecenas.
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
a generous benefactor; specifically, a patron of literature or art
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Anagrams edit
Latin edit
Etymology edit
Ultimately from Etruscan.
Pronunciation edit
- (Classical) IPA(key): /mae̯ˈkeː.naːs/, [mäe̯ˈkeːnäːs̠]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /meˈt͡ʃe.nas/, [meˈt͡ʃɛːnäs]
Proper noun edit
Maecēnās m (genitive Maecēnātis); third declension
- A Roman cognomen — famously held by:
- Gaius Cilnius Maecenas, a Roman patron
- (by extension) Maecenas (any person who is a generous benefactor, particularly of the arts)
Declension edit
Third-declension noun.
Case | Singular | Plural |
---|---|---|
Nominative | Maecēnās | Maecēnātēs |
Genitive | Maecēnātis | Maecēnātum |
Dative | Maecēnātī | Maecēnātibus |
Accusative | Maecēnātem | Maecēnātēs |
Ablative | Maecēnāte | Maecēnātibus |
Vocative | Maecēnās | Maecēnātēs |