Diēspiter

Meaning

1. Old LatinJupiter, Father Jove
   Diéspiter te dique, Ergasile, perdant et ventrem tuom, parasítosque omnis, et qui posthac cenam parasitis dabit. cladés calamitasque, intemperies módo in nostram advenit domum. quasi lúpus esuriens ille metui ne in me faceret impetum.May Jupiter and the Deities confound you, Ergasilus, and your stomach, and all Parasites, and every one who henceforth shall give a dinner to Parasites. Destruction and devastation and ruin have just now entered our house. I was afraid that he would be making an attack on me, as though he had been an hungry wolf.c. 205 BCE, Titus Maccius Plautus, Captivi, act IV, scene IV, lines 1–4:

Declension

Origins

Old Latin from Proto-Italic *djous patēr (“Jupiter”, literally “Sky Father”) from *djous + *patēr, from Proto-Indo-European *dyḗws (“sky god”, literally “the bright one”) from *dyew- (“to be bright, day sky”) + *ph₂tḗr (“father”). Essentially equivalent to diēs + pater; adds the title “Father” to Old Latin Diovis (“Jove”) whence the oblique cases of later forms of Diēspiter are derived by analogous formation (cf. Iuppiter, Iovis). Cognate of Umbrian 𐌉𐌖𐌐𐌀𐌕𐌄𐌓 (iupater); Sanskrit द्यौष्पितृ (Dyáuṣpitṛ́). Related by prime root to Diāna, dīvus, deus, and Ancient Greek Ζεύς (Zeús)—the Greek god to whom Roman Diēspiter is later equated—compare the equivalent vocative phrase in Doric Greek Δεῦ πάτερ (Deû páter), Attic Greek Ζεῦ πάτερ (Zeû páter, “O father Zeus”).

In English words that came into English from Diēspiter

• JupiterIuppiter