Maecenas

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English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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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

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Noun

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Maecenas (plural Maecenases)

  1. A generous benefactor; specifically, a patron of literature or art.
    • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: [], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: [] 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.
    • 2010 November 5, Katherine Knorr, “For November, Paris Is the City of Lenses”, in The International Herald Tribune[1], →ISSN:
      The contemporary art space created within the Palais de Tokyo (also home to the Paris Museum of Modern Art) is a pretty sad example of government as Maecenas.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Anagrams

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Latin

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Etymology

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Ultimately from Etruscan.

Pronunciation

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Proper noun

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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

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Third-declension noun.

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

Descendants

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  • Dutch: mecenas
  • French: mécène
  • German: Mäzen