nutus

Latin

Etymology

From *nuō +‎ -tus.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈnuː.tus/, [ˈnuːt̪ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈnu.tus/, [ˈnuːt̪us]

Noun

nūtus m (genitive nūtūs); fourth declension

1. a nod, nodding
2. a downward tendency or motion; the pull of gravity
3. a command, will, pleasure (the nod as an expression of will and authority: compare nūmen)

   ad nūtum praestō esse ― to be at one's complete disposal

   • c. 52 BCE, Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico 1.31:

     Ariovistum autem […] superbe et crudeliter imperare, obsides nobilissimi cuiusque liberos poscere et in eos omnia exempla cruciatusque edere, si qua res non ad nutum aut ad voluntatem eius facta sit.

     Moreover, [as for] Ariovistus, […] [he began] to lord it haughtily and cruelly, to demand as hostages the children of all the principal nobles, and wreak on them every kind of cruelty, if every thing was not done at his nod or pleasure.

Declension

Fourth-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	nūtus	nūtūs
Genitive	nūtūs	nūtuum
Dative	nūtuī	nūtibus
Accusative	nūtum	nūtūs
Ablative	nūtū	nūtibus
Vocative	nūtus	nūtūs

Descendants

• → Portuguese: nuto
• → Spanish: nuto

References

• “nutus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “nutus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• nutus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • gravity: nutus et pondus or simply nutus (ῥοπή)
    
  • to take one's directions from another; to obey him in everything: se convertere, converti ad alicuius nutum
    
  • to be at the beck and call of another; to be his creature: totum se fingere et accommodare ad alicuius arbitrium et nutum