auctoritas

auctoritas

Latin

Etymology

From auctor (“seller, vendor, author; (figuratively) authorship, agency, encouragement”) +‎ -tās.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /au̯kˈtoː.ri.taːs/, [äu̯kˈt̪oːrɪt̪äːs̠]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /au̯kˈto.ri.tas/, [äu̯kˈt̪ɔːrit̪äs]

Noun

auctōritās f (genitive auctōritātis); third declension

1. credibility, prestige, reputation, importance
2. influence, weight, personal weight
3. power, ability, authority

   Synonyms: dicio, imperium, arbitrium

4. advice, counsel (when offered by someone with credibility and strong influence)
5. support, backing
6. warrant, authenticity (something that provides assurance or confirmation)
7. sanction, political sanction, warrant
8. power conferred, will, decree, order, rights, command (often refers to the will or decree of the senate)
9. responsibility, opinion, judgment
10. legal title
11. influential person

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	auctōritās	auctōritātēs
Genitive	auctōritātis	auctōritātum
Dative	auctōritātī	auctōritātibus
Accusative	auctōritātem	auctōritātēs
Ablative	auctōritāte	auctōritātibus
Vocative	auctōritās	auctōritātēs

Descendants

• Catalan: autoritat
• Galician: autoridade
• Italian: autorità
• Old French: autorité
  • → Middle Dutch: auctoriteit
    • Dutch: autoriteit
      • → Indonesian: otoritet → otoritas
  • Middle French: auctorité
    • French: autorité
      • → Romanian: autoritate
  • → Middle English: auctorite, auctoritee, auctoryte, autorite, autoritee, autoryte, awtorite, outorytye
    • English: authority
    • Scots: authority, authoritie
• Portuguese: autoridade
• Spanish: autoridad
• → German: Autorität
  • → Polish: autorytet
    • → Ukrainian: авторитет (avtorytet)
• → Old Irish: augtortas
  • Middle Irish: augtardas
    • Irish: údarás
• → Proto-Brythonic: *audʉrdọd
  • Middle Welsh: awdurdawt
    • Welsh: awdurdod

Further reading

• “auctoritas”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “auctoritas”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• auctoritas 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)
• auctoritas in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to possess great authority; to be an influential person: magna auctoritate esse
    
  • to possess great authority; to be an influential person: auctoritate valere or florere
    
  • to possess great authority; to be an influential person: magna auctoritas est in aliquo
    
  • to have great influence with a person; to have considerable weight: multum auctoritate valere, posse apud aliquem
    
  • to have great influence with a person; to have considerable weight: magna auctoritas alicuius est apud aliquem
    
  • to have great influence with a person; to have considerable weight: alicuius auctoritas multum valet apud aliquem
    
  • to gain dignity; to make oneself a person of consequence: auctoritatem or dignitatem sibi conciliare, parare
    
  • to attain to the highest eminence: ad summam auctoritatem pervenire
    
  • to increase a person's dignity: auctoritatem alicuius amplificare (opp. imminuere, minuere)
    
  • to insult a person's dignity: auctoritati, dignitati alicuius illudere
    
  • to be guided by another's example: auctoritatem alicuius sequi
    
  • standard and pattern: auctoritas et exemplum (Balb. 13. 31)
    
  • to have great influence: opibus, gratia, auctoritate valere, florere
    
  • the opinion of the senate in general: senatus auctoritas
    
• “auctoritas”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “auctoritas”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin