egestas

egestas

Latin

Etymology

From egeō (“I need; I lack”) +‎ -tās. Per de Vaan, the -tās noun must have been built on an unattested s-stem neuter noun Proto-Italic *egos, *eges-; compare tempestas from Proto-Italic *tempos.[1]

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /eˈɡes.taːs/, [ɛˈɡɛs̠t̪äːs̠]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /eˈd͡ʒes.tas/, [eˈd͡ʒɛst̪äs]

Noun

egestās f (genitive egestātis); third declension

1. need, want, poverty

   Synonyms: pēnūria, paupertās, dēsīderium, necessitās, inopia, indigentia, ūsus, opus, angustia

   Antonyms: dīvitiae, opulentia

   • circa 100-110, Tacitus, Histories: Book 4‎:

     Obsessos hinc fides, inde egestas inter decus ac flagitium distrahebant.

     The ties of loyalty on the one hand, and the necessities of famine on the other, kept the besieged wavering between the alternatives of glory and infamy.

   • 405 CE, Jerome, Vulgate Proverbs 21:5:

     Cōgitātiōnēs rōbustī semper in abundantiā: omnis autem piger semper in egestāte.

     The thoughts of the industrious always bring forth abundance: but every sluggard is always in want.
     (Douay-Rheims trans., Challoner rev.: 1752 CE)

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	egestās	egestātēs
Genitive	egestātis	egestātum
Dative	egestātī	egestātibus
Accusative	egestātem	egestātēs
Ablative	egestāte	egestātibus
Vocative	egestās	egestātēs

References

1. De Vaan, Michiel (2008), “egeō”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 186

Further reading

• “egestas”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “egestas”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• egestas 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)
• egestas in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to be reduced to (abject) poverty: ad egestatem, ad inopiam (summam omnium rerum) redigi
    
  • to live in poverty, destitution: in egestate esse, versari
    
  • to live in poverty, destitution: vitam in egestate degere
    
  • to be entirely destitute; to be a beggar: in summa egestate or mendicitate esse