conatus

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Latin cōnor

Proto-Indo-European *-tus

Proto-Italic *-tus

Latin -tus

Latin cōnātusbor.

English conatus

Borrowed from Latin cōnātus.

Pronunciation

• (singular):
  • enPR: kōnāʹtəs
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kəʊˈneɪ.təs/
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /koʊˈneɪ.təs/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (plural):
  • enPR: kōnāʹto͞os
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kəʊˈneɪtuːs/
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /koʊˈneɪ.tus/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

Noun

conatus (plural conatuses or conatus)

1. An effort, an endeavour, a striving.
   1. Such a striving effort that is a life force.
      • 2018, Steven Pinker, “Chapter 2: Entro, Evo, Info”, in Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress, Penguin, →ISBN:

        Creationists commonly doctor the Second Law of Thermodynamics to claim that biological evolution, an increase in order over time, is physically impossible. The part of the law they omit is “in a closed system.” Organisms are open systems: they capture energy from the sun, food, or ocean vents to carve out temporary pockets of order in their bodies and nests while they dump heat and waste into the environment, increasing disorder in the world as a whole. Organisms’ use of energy to maintain their integrity against the press of entropy is a modern explanation of the principle of conatus (effort or striving), which Spinoza defined as “the endeavor to persist and flourish in one’s own being,” and which was a foundation of several Enlightenment-era theories of life and mind.

2. A force or impulse.

   Synonym: nisus

   • 1665, Robert Hooke, Micrographia:

     [E]ach part so moved does by that motion exert a conatus of protruding and displacing all the adjacent Particles.

Related terms

• conation
• conative

Translations

effort — see also attempt,‎ failure

• Spanish: conato (es) m

Further reading

• conatus on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• uncoats, Canutos, scanout, co-aunts, toucans

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [koːˈnaː.tʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [koˈnaː.tus]

Etymology 1

Perfect active participle of cōnor (“try, attempt”).

Participle

cōnātus (feminine cōnāta, neuter cōnātum); first/second-declension participle

1. tried, attempted, having tried.

Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

	singular				plural
	masculine	feminine	neuter		masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	cōnātus	cōnāta	cōnātum		cōnātī	cōnātae	cōnāta
genitive	cōnātī	cōnātae	cōnātī		cōnātōrum	cōnātārum	cōnātōrum
dative	cōnātō	cōnātae	cōnātō		cōnātīs
accusative	cōnātum	cōnātam	cōnātum		cōnātōs	cōnātās	cōnāta
ablative	cōnātō	cōnātā	cōnātō		cōnātīs
vocative	cōnāte	cōnāta	cōnātum		cōnātī	cōnātae	cōnāta

Etymology 2

Etymology tree

Latin cōnor

Proto-Indo-European *-tus

Proto-Italic *-tus

Latin -tus

Latin cōnātus

From cōnor (“try, attempt”) + -tus.

Noun

cōnātus m (genitive cōnātūs); fourth declension

1. attempt, effort, exertion, struggle

   Synonyms: studium, opus, opera, labor, cūra, intēnsiō, mōlīmen, mōlēs, pulvis

Declension

Fourth-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	cōnātus	cōnātūs
genitive	cōnātūs	cōnātuum
dative	cōnātuī	cōnātibus
accusative	cōnātum	cōnātūs
ablative	cōnātū	cōnātibus
vocative	cōnātus	cōnātūs

Descendants

• → English: conatus
• → Italian: conato
• → Spanish: conato

References

• “conatus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “conatus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "conatus", 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)
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to persevere in one's resolve: in incepto or conatu perstare
    
  • to give up one's project: incepto or conatu desistere
    
• conatus in Ramminger, Johann (16 July 2016 (last accessed)), Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎^[2], pre-publication website, 2005-2016