fatuus1
Meaning
- adjectivefoolish, silly, simple, stupid
Ego me ipsum stultum existimo, fatuum esse non opinor.
I consider myself stupid, not silly. - adjectiveinsipid, tasteless
Ut sapiant fatuae, fabrorum prandia, betae.
So that tasteless beets, the lunches of craftsmen, may have taste. - adjectiveawkward, clumsy, unwieldy
Illa bipennem insulsam et fatuam dextra tenebat.
She grasped an inelegant and unwieldy axe with her right hand.
Latīnē defined in Latin in our graded readers
stultus, sine sapientiāChoosing the right word Döderlein's Latin Synonyms
Stupidus · Brutus · Bardus · Stultus · Fatuus · Stolidus
Stupidus, brutus, and bardus, denote a merely negative quality, want of intellect; stupidus (from τύφω, ταφεῖν), that of a human being who comprehends with difficulty, as dull-witted, like ἀναίσθητος; brutus (μαυρωτός), that of beasts, and of men whose organization is like that of beasts, who comprehend nothing, as without reason, like βλάξ; bardus, who comprehends slowly, as without talent, like βραδύς; whereas stultus, fatuus, and stolidus, denote a positive quality of the mind, which has false notions and a perverse judgment; stultus (from τέλλω, ἀτάλλω, ἀταλόφρων), a want of practical wisdom, as folly, like μωρός, in opp. to prudens; fatuus, a want of æsthetical judgment, as silliness; stolidus, a want of reasonable moderation, as brutality. Liv. xxv. 19. Id non promissum magis stolide quam stulte creditum. (iv. 229.)
Declension
| form | masculine | feminine | neuter |
|---|---|---|---|
| nominative | fatuus | fatua | fatuum |
| genitive | fatuī | fatuae | fatuī |
| dative | fatuō | fatuae | fatuō |
| accusative | fatuum | fatuam | fatuum |
| ablative | fatuō | fatuā | fatuō |
| vocative | fatue | fatua | fatuum |
| form | masculine | feminine | neuter |
|---|---|---|---|
| nominative | fatuī | fatuae | fatua |
| genitive | fatuōrum | fatuārum | fatuōrum |
| dative | fatuīs | fatuīs | fatuīs |
| accusative | fatuōs | fatuās | fatua |
| ablative | fatuīs | fatuīs | fatuīs |
| vocative | fatuī | fatuae | fatua |
stulti, stolidi. fatui, fungi, bardi, blenni, buccones, Plaut. Bacch. 5, 1, 2: fatuus est, insulsus, Ter. Eun. 5, 9, 49: non modo nequam et improbus, sed etiam fatuus et amens es, Cic. Deiot. 7, 21: monitor, id. de Or. 2, 24, 99: homo, Poët. ap. Cic. de Or. 2, 67, 274: puer, Cic. Att. 6, 6, 3: nisi plane fatui sint, id. Fin. 2, 22, 70: mores, Plaut. Trin. 2, 2, 18.—illa bipennem Insulsam et fatuam dextra tenebat, Juv. 6, 658.—paene ecfregisti, fatue, foribus cardines, Plaut. Am. 4, 2, 6; Cat. 83, 2; Juv. 9, 8.—Harpasten, uxoris meae fatuam, scis hereditarium onus in domo mea remansisse ... si quando fatuo delectari volo, me rideo, Sen. Ep. 50, 2; Lampr. Comm. 4, 3.—Hence, fătŭe, adv., foolishly, absurdly: plerumque studio loquendi fatue modo accedendum, Quint. 6, 4, 8 dub. (Spald. and Zumpt, fatui); Tert. adv. Herm. 10; id. de Pat. 6. —Hence,Charlton Lewis's shorter dictionary for students: the same scholarship in plain, modern definitions.
Origins
From Proto-Italic *fātus, of uncertain origin. Maybe from dialectal Proto-Indo-European *bʰat-. (See also battuō.) More likely, a derivative of *bʰeh₂- (“to speak”), particularly an abstract noun *bʰh₂-tu- (“speech”); thereby related to for. According to one hypothesis, Fatuus was an alternative name of the god Faunus, who predicted the future.
In English words that came into English from fatuus
- fade*fatidus
- fatuousfatuus