LATIN DICTIONARYLexicon Latīnum
Allen & Greenough · Part First — Words and Forms › Formation of Words

§244. Nominal Adjectives

Patronymics, indicating descent or relationship, are formed by adding to proper names the suffixes—

  • -adēs, -idēs, -īdēs, -eus, M.; -ās, -is, -ēis, F.

These words, originally Greek adjectives, have almost all become nouns in Latin:—

  • Atlās: Atlanti-adēs, Mercury; Atlant-idĕs (Gr. plur.), the Pleiads.
  • Scīpiō: Scīpi-adēs, son of Scipio.
  • Tyndareus: Tyndar-idēs, Castor or Pollux, son of Tyndarus; Tyndar-is, Helen, daughter of Tyndarus.
  • Anchīsēs: Anchīsi-adēs, Æneas, son of Anchises.
  • Thēseus: Thēs-īdēs, son of Theseus.
  • Tȳdeus: Tȳd-īdēs, Diomedes, son of Tydeus.
  • Oīleus: Âiāx Oīl-eus, son of Oileus.
  • Cisseus: Cissē-is, Hecuba, daughter of Cisseus.
  • Thaumās: Thaumant-iās, Iris, daughter of Thaumas.
  • Hesperus: Hesper-ides (from Hesper-is, -idis), plur., the daughters of Hesperus, the Hesperides.

J. H. Allen and J. B. Greenough, New Latin Grammar (Boston: Ginn, 1903). Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.