noun · neutersecond declension
bū̆stum
bū̆stum n (genitive bū̆stī)
Classical[ˈbuːs.tũː]Ecclesiastical[ˈbus.tum]
Meaning
- burial mound, grave, tomb
bustīs exīsse feruntur et tacitae questī tempore noctis avī [but] their [dead] forefathers are said to have come forth from their tombs, and to have uttered their complaints in the hours of the still night 1851. The Fasti &c of Ovid. Trans. Henry T. Riley. London: H. G. Bohn. pg. 71.
8 CE, Ovidius, Fasti 2.551–552 - a place for burning funeral pyres (with human remains interred at or near the site)
Latīnē defined in Latin in our graded readers
sepulcrum mortuībustum -ī (n) — in Metamorphoses I, ch. 9, 16
sepulcrum mortuōrumbustum -ī (n) — in Aeneis, ch. 24
Declension
| form | singular | plural |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | bū̆stum | bū̆sta |
| genitive | bū̆stī | bū̆stōrum |
| dative | bū̆stō | bū̆stīs |
| accusative | bū̆stum | bū̆sta |
| ablative | bū̆stō | bū̆stīs |
| vocative | bū̆stum | bū̆sta |
bustum, i, n. buro = uro, whence also comburo; cf. burrus, red, orig.
I. the place where the bodies of the dead were burned and buried; later also, in gen., for a tomb: bustum proprie dicitur locus, in quo mortuus est combustus et sepultus... ubi vero combustus quis tantummodo, alibi vero est sepultus, is locus ab urendo ustrina vocatur; sed modo busta sepulchra appellamus, Paul. ex Fest. p. 32 Müll.; cf. Serv. ad Verg. A. 3, 22; 11, 201; Inscr. Murat. 1514, 3.
I. The place of burning and burying; the funeral-pyre after the burning of the body:
semiustaque servant Busta neque avelli possunt, Verg. A. 11, 201 Don. ad loc.; Lucr. 3, 906; Stat. S. 5, 1, 226; cf. Cic. Leg. 2, 26, 64.—II. Transf.
A. In gen., a mound, tomb (most freq. in the poets):
in busto Achilli, Plaut. Bacch. 4, 9, 14: si quis bustum (nam id puto appellari τύμβον) violarit, Solon ap. Cic. Leg. 2, 26, 64; Cic. Phil. 14, 13, 34; id. Tusc. 5, 35, 101; id. Att. 7, 9, 1; Cat. 64, 363; Verg. A. 11, 850; 12, 863; * Hor. C. 3, 3, 40; Prop. 3 (4), 6, 29; 1, 19, 21; 2 (3), 13, 33; Ov. M. 4, 88; 13, 452 al.; Suet. Caes. 84; id. Ner. 33, 38; Luc. 8, 748 —2. Trop., of things that, like a tomb, give up a body to destruction; so of the maw of an animal that eats men:
viva videns vivo sepeliri viscera busto, seeing the living body enclosed in the living grave, Lucr. 5, 991.—So of Tereus, who devoured his son: flet modo, seque vocat bustum miserabile nati, Ov. M. 6, 665.—Sarcastically, of one who annulled the laws: bustum legum omnium ac religionum, Cic. Pis. 5, 11; and: bustum rei publicae, id. ib. 4, 9.—Of a battle-field: civilia busta Philippi, Prop. 2, 1, 27 Kuin.—B. Ad Busta Gallica, a place in Rome, so called from the Gauls who were burned and buried there, Varr. L. L. 5, § 157 Müll.; Liv. 5, 48, 3; 22, 14, 11.—
C. Of a destroyed city, the site, ruins, Plin. 5, 17, 15, § 73.—
D. The burned body itself, the ashes, Stat. Th. 12, 247.
Charlton Lewis's shorter dictionary for students: the same scholarship in plain, modern definitions.
būstum ī, n
a place of burning and burying, funeral - pyre: semiusta Busta, V. — A mound, tomb: bustum evertere: Catilinae ingens terreno ex aggere, V.; a place in Rome was named busta Gallica, the tomb of the Gauls, L.: civilia busta (of Philippi), Pr.—Plur., of a single tomb: Nini, O. —Fig., of Tereus: se vocat bustum miserabile nati, O.: bustum legum, i. e. one who annulled the laws.
Origins
Backformed from compounds of Latin ūrere, ū̆stum (“to burn”), via metanalysis of amb-ū̆stum as am-bū̆stum, which also led to combūrō. The interpretation of the word was thus "place for burning things around" > "place for funeral pyres" > "burial mound", whence later senses of "upper torso" in descendant languages. Compare also the etymology of the related Italian bruciare (“to burn”).
Italo-Romance
- Italianbusto
Borrowings
- Ancient Greekβοῦστον
In English words that came into English from bū̆stum
- bustbū̆stum