metus

Esperanto

Verb

metus

1. conditional of meti

Ido

Verb

metus

1. conditional of metar

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *metu-, of uncertain origin. Klingenschmitt connects the word to Old Irish moth (“astonishment”), which is semantically attractive; however, he does not explain the phonetic mechanisms by which the two words could be related.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈme.tus/, [ˈmɛt̪ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈme.tus/, [ˈmɛːt̪us]

Noun

metus m (genitive metūs); fourth declension

1. fear, dread

   Synonyms: terror, timor, pavor

   • 8 CE – 12 CE, Ovid, Sorrows 1.43–44:

     carminibus metus omnis obest; perditus ēnsem
     haesūrum iugulō iam putō iamque meō.

     Every fear is harmful to [writing] verses; I have already been destroyed, and now I suspect a sword will be stuck in my throat.
     (Even though the poet had been sentenced to live in exile he still feared for his life.)

2. anxiety, awe

Declension

Fourth-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	metus	metūs
Genitive	metūs	metuum
Dative	metuī	metibus
Accusative	metum	metūs
Ablative	metū	metibus
Vocative	metus	metūs

Derived terms

Derived terms

• metuō
• in metū sum (I am in fear)
• meticulōsus
• metum concipiō (I become afraid)
• metum habeō (I am afraid, I entertain fear)

Descendants

• Padanian:
  • Piedmontese: mei
• Southern Gallo-Romance:
  • Gascon: met
• Ibero-Romance:
  • Asturian: mieu
  • Navarro-Aragonese: miedo
    • Aragonese: miedo
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: medo
    • Galician: medo
    • Portuguese: medo
  • Spanish: miedo
    • Papiamentu: miedu
• ⇒ Vulgar Latin: *metōrōsus (by analogy with *pavōrōsus)
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: medoroso, mederoso, medroso
    • Portuguese: medroso
  • Spanish: medroso

References

• “metus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “metus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• metus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to be comprised under the term 'fear.: sub metum subiectum esse
    
  • a man is paralysed with fear: metus aliquem exanimat (Mil. 24. 65)
    
  • to grow pale with fear: exalbescere metu
    
  • to be completely prostrated by fear: metu fractum et debilitatum, perculsum esse
    
  • to recover from one's fright: a metu respirare (Cluent. 70. 200)
    
  • to recover from one's fright: ex metu se recreare, se colligere
    
• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “mĕtus”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volumes 6/2: Mercatio–Mneme, page 62
• Joan Coromines, José A[ntonio] Pascual (1985) “miedo”, in Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico [Critic Castilian and Hispanic Etymological Dictionary] (in Spanish), volume IV (Me–Re), Madrid: Gredos, →ISBN, page 66

Lithuanian

Noun

metùs

1. accusative plural of mẽtas (“time”)