sublestus

Latin

Etymology

Unknown. A verbal adjective from an unknown verb or from an unattested noun + -tus (forming adjectives).

Pronunciation

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

Adjective

sublestus (feminine sublesta, neuter sublestum, comparative sublestior, superlative sublestissimus); first/second-declension adjective (Plautine, Old Latin, very rare)

1. weak, feeble or making weak; (by extension) shaky, empty, light, worthless

   Synonyms: īnfirmus, dēbilis; tenuis, levis, frīvolus

   • c. 197 BCE, Plautus, Persa 3.1.16–20:

     Tua istaec potestas est, pater. Verum tamen,
     quamquam res nostrae sunt, pater, pauperculae,
     modice et modeste meliust vitam vivere;
     nam ad paupertatem si admigrant infamiae,
     gravior paupertas fit, fides sublestior.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • c. 190 BCE, Plautus, Bacchides 3.6.13:

     Multi more isto atque exemplo vivont, quos cum censeas
     esse amicos, reperiuntur falsi falsimoniis,
     lingua factiosi, inertes opera, sublesta fide.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 2nd century CE, Sextus Pompeius Festus, edited by Karl Otfried Müller, De Verborum Significatione quae supersunt cum Pauli Epitome, published 1839, page 294; epitomized by Paul the Deacon, 8th c.:

     Sublesta antiqui dicebant infirma et tenuia. Plautus in Persa: "paupertatem […] fides sublestior." id est, infirmior. Idem in Nervolaria vinum ait "sublestissimum", quia infirmos faciat vel corpore vel animo.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • c. 280 CE, Nonius Marcellus, De compendiosa doctrina I 259:

     SVBLESTVM est leve, frivolum. Plautus:
     nam ubi ad paupertatem accessit iam infamia,
     paupertas gravior fit, fides sublestior.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

	singular				plural
	masculine	feminine	neuter		masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	sublestus	sublesta	sublestum		sublestī	sublestae	sublesta
genitive	sublestī	sublestae	sublestī		sublestōrum	sublestārum	sublestōrum
dative	sublestō	sublestae	sublestō		sublestīs
accusative	sublestum	sublestam	sublestum		sublestōs	sublestās	sublesta
ablative	sublestō	sublestā	sublestō		sublestīs
vocative	subleste	sublesta	sublestum		sublestī	sublestae	sublesta

Further reading

• “sublestus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “sublestus”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.