honestus

Latin

Etymology

By surface analysis, honor / honōs (“honor, esteem”) +‎ -tus (forming adjectives).

Pronunciation

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

Adjective

honestus (feminine honesta, neuter honestum, comparative honestior, superlative honestissimus); first/second-declension adjective

1. full of or regarded with honor; honorable, of high birth, noble, distinguished, respectable, eminent

   Synonym: inhonestus

2. bring or deserving honor; worthy, creditable, respectable; decent, virtuous
   • c. 4 BCE – 65 CE, Seneca Minor, Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium 1.2.5:

     “Honesta,” inquit, “rēs est laeta paupertās.”

     (Seneca quotes from a now-lost work of Epicurus:) “Cheerful poverty,” [Epicurus] says, “is an honorable condition.”

3. (of one's appearance) fine, handsome, beautiful, becoming, noble

Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

	singular				plural
	masculine	feminine	neuter		masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	honestus	honesta	honestum		honestī	honestae	honesta
genitive	honestī	honestae	honestī		honestōrum	honestārum	honestōrum
dative	honestō	honestae	honestō		honestīs
accusative	honestum	honestam	honestum		honestōs	honestās	honesta
ablative	honestō	honestā	honestō		honestīs
vocative	honeste	honesta	honestum		honestī	honestae	honesta

Derived terms

• honestās
• honestē
• honestitūdō
• honestō
• honestum
• inhonestus

Related terms

• honestāmentum
• honor
• honōrābilis
• honōrārium
• honōrārius
• honōrātē
• honōrātiō
• honōrātus
• honōrificē
• honōrificentia
• honōrificō
• honōrificus
• honōriger
• honōripeta
• honōrō
• honōrus

Descendants

• Catalan: honest
• English: honest
• French: honnête
• Italian: onesto
• Norman: honnête (Jersey)
• Occitan: onèst
• Piedmontese: onest
• Old Galician-Portuguese: onesto
  • Galician: honesto
  • Portuguese: honesto
• Romanian: onest
• Sicilian: anestu
• Spanish: honesto

References

• “honestus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “honestus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "honestus", 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)
• “honestus”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • (ambiguous) to live (all) one's life (honourably, in the country, as a man of learning): vitam, aetatem (omnem aetatem, omne aetatis tempus) agere (honeste, ruri, in litteris), degere, traducere