Maecenas

English

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle French mecenas, and its source, (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin Maecēnās (“literary patron”), from the name of Gaius Maecenas, Roman statesman and patron of Horace and Virgil.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mʌɪˈsiːnəs/

Noun

Maecenas (plural Maecenases)

1. A generous benefactor; specifically, a patron of literature or art.
   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, p. 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.

   • 1920, Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy vol. III, page 19:

     [...] thou art his dear and loving friend, good and gracious Lord and Master, his Maecenas.

Translations

a generous benefactor; specifically, a patron of literature or art

• French: mécène (fr) m
• German: Mäzen (de) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hungarian: mecénás (hu), műbarát (hu), művészetpártoló

Anagrams

• Macanese

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Latin

Etymology

Ultimately from Etruscan.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /mae̯ˈkeː.naːs/, [mäe̯ˈkeːnäːs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /meˈt͡ʃe.nas/, [meˈt͡ʃɛːnäs]

Proper noun

Maecēnās m (genitive Maecēnātis); third declension

1. A Roman cognomen — famously held by:
   1. Gaius Cilnius Maecenas, a Roman patron
2. (by extension) Maecenas (any person who is a generous benefactor, particularly of the arts)

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	Maecēnās	Maecēnātēs
Genitive	Maecēnātis	Maecēnātum
Dative	Maecēnātī	Maecēnātibus
Accusative	Maecēnātem	Maecēnātēs
Ablative	Maecēnāte	Maecēnātibus
Vocative	Maecēnās	Maecēnātēs