English → Latin
“rear” in Latin
ēdūcōto lead, draw or take out, forth or away; to raise up; erectexsultōto spring vigorously, leap or jump up; to exult in, rejoice; to revelnovissimussuperlative degree of novus; last, latest; rear, hindercōgōto collect, assemble, gather together; to restrict or confine in space; to force, compel, urge, encourage, finagleaciēssharp edge or point; battle line; battle, engagementagmena train of something; multitude, host, crowd, flock; an army, column, troop, band; line or rank of troops; stream, cours
The English word rear itself goes back to Latin retrō.
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
rear v.
Transitively, To bring up, educare [Vid: in EDUCATE].
Intransitively, exsultare (the proper word; Vid: Nep., Eum 5, 5); erigere pedes priores (to raise the fore feet, Liv., 8, 7): tollere se arrectum (Verg., Aen., 10, 392).
rear s.
agmen extremum or novissimum (Caes.); extrema agminis (Liv.): from the context also, novissimi (opposed to primum agmen). To bring up the rear, agmen claudere or cogere. ☞ The foregoing when the army is considered as on a march; of an army in order of battle, we must say acies, not agmen, and then “the rear” is novissima acies; e.g., ab novissima acie ante signa procedere (Liv.).
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for rear?
- The usual Latin words for “rear” are ēdūcō, exsultō, novissimus; also cōgō, aciēs, agmen. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.