plautus

See also: Plautus, and pļautus

Latin

Alternative forms

• plōtus

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *plautos (whence Oscan 𐌐𐌋𐌀𐌅𐌕𐌀𐌃 sg (plavtad, “sole of the foot or of a shoe”, abl.), Umbrian preplotatu, preplohotatu (“cruch, stamp down”, 3sg.ipv.II.)), from Proto-Indo-European *pl̥h₂-u-tós, from *pleh₂- (“flat”). Related to plaudō (“to strike, clap”).^[1]

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈplau̯.tus/, [ˈpɫ̪äu̯t̪ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈplau̯.tus/, [ˈpläːu̯t̪us]

Adjective

plautus (feminine plauta, neuter plautum); first/second-declension adjective

1. (in specialised senses) flat, having the appearance of being trod flat
   1. flat-footed, having broad flat feet

      Synonym: plancus

      • 1839 [8th century CE], Paulus Diaconus, edited by Karl Otfried Müller, Excerpta ex libris Pompeii Festi De significatione verborum, page 238:

        Plōtōs appellant Umbrī pedibus plānīs nātōs . . . unde et Maccius poēta, quia Umber Sarsinās erat, a pedum plānitiē initiō Plōtus, posteā Plautus coeptus est dīcī.

        By the word plōtus the Umbrians call those born with flat feet . . . hence also the poet Maccius, being an Umbrian from Sarsinae and having flat feet, was at first called Plōtus, and then Plautus.

   2. flap-eared, having wide or large flat ears

      Synonym: flaccus

Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

	singular				plural
	masculine	feminine	neuter		masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	plautus	plauta	plautum		plautī	plautae	plauta
genitive	plautī	plautae	plautī		plautōrum	plautārum	plautōrum
dative	plautō	plautae	plautō		plautīs
accusative	plautum	plautam	plautum		plautōs	plautās	plauta
ablative	plautō	plautā	plautō		plautīs
vocative	plaute	plauta	plautum		plautī	plautae	plauta

Derived terms

• *pauta (see *patta)
• Plautus

Descendants

Via feminine plauta:

• Gallo-Italic:
  • Piedmontese: piòta (“paw”)
• Gallo-Romance:
  • Franco-Provençal: pllôta (“paw”)

References

• “plautus” on page 1528 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (2nd ed., 2012)

1. De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “plautus”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 471

Further reading

• “plautus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• plautus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• plautus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “plautus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “plautus”, in William Smith, editor (1848), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray