halitus

English

Etymology

From Latin halitus.

Noun

halitus (plural halituses or halitus)

1. A vapour.
   • 1932, Dorothy L. Sayers, chapter 1, in Have His Carcase:

     She had not realised how butcherly the severed vessels would look, and she had not reckoned with the horrid halitus of blood, which steamed to her nostrils under the blazing sun.

Latin

Etymology

From hālō +‎ -tus. (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “hālō + -tus → hālātus”)

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈha.lɪ.tʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈaː.li.t̪us]

Noun

hālitus m (genitive hālitūs); fourth declension

1. breath, exhalation

   Synonyms: spīritus, anima, spīrātiō

   • c. 62 CE, Persius, Saturae 3:

     ‘Inspice, nescio quid trepidat mihi pectus et aegris faucibus exsuperat gravis halitus, inspice sodes’ qui dicit medico, […]

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. (by extension) bad breath
   • c. 77 CE – 79 CE, Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 21.LXXXIII.142:

     Halitus oris [iris] commanducata abolet alarumque vitia.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

3. steam, vapour, fume

   Synonym: fumus

   • c. 37 BCE – 30 BCE, Virgil, Georgics 2.346–353:

     Quod superest, quaecumque premes virgulta per agros,
     Sparge fimo pingui et multa memor occule terra,
     Aut lapidem bibulum aut squalentis infode conchas;
     Inter enim labentur aquae tenuisque subibit
     Halitus atque animos tollent sata; iamque reperti,
     Qui saxo super atque ingentis pondere testae
     Urgerent; hoc effusos munimen ad imbris,
     Hoc, ubi hiulca siti findit canis aestifer arva.

     • Translation by James B. Greenough

       For the rest, whate'er
       The sets thou plantest in thy fields, thereon
       Strew refuse rich, and with abundant earth
       Take heed to hide them, and dig in withal
       Rough shells or porous stone, for therebetween
       Will water trickle and fine vapour creep,
       And so the plants their drooping spirits raise.
       Aye, and there have been, who with weight of stone
       Or heavy potsherd press them from above;
       This serves for shield in pelting showers, and this
       When the hot dog-star chaps the fields with drought.

Declension

Fourth-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	hālitus	hālitūs
genitive	hālitūs	hālituum
dative	hālituī	hālitibus
accusative	hālitum	hālitūs
ablative	hālitū	hālitibus
vocative	hālitus	hālitūs

Descendants

• → Italian: alito
• → Spanish: hálito

References

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