senex1
Meaning
- femininemasculineold man, older man (typically age 40 or older; older than a iuvenis)
[…] magno opere contemno, conlectum ex senibus desperatis, ex agresti luxuria, ex rusticis decoctoribus, ex eis qui vadimonia deserere quam illum exercitum maluerunt;
[…] I thoroughly despise that army composed of desperate old men, of clownish profligates, and uneducated spendthrifts; of those who have preferred to desert their bail rather than that army; speech 2, section 5et erit post haec effundam spiritum meum super omnem carnem et prophetabunt filii vestri et filiae vestrae senes vestri somnia somniabunt et iuvenes vestri visiones videbunt
And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:Late 4th century, Jerome [et al.], transl., edited by Roger Gryson, Biblia Sacra: Iuxta Vulgatam Versionem (Vulgate), 5th edition, Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, published 2007, →ISBN, 2:28: - femininemasculineold person, older person
- femininemasculineuncommonas feminine old woman, older woman
At quae fida fuit nulli, post victa senecta ducit inops tremula stamina torta manu firmaque conductis adnectit licia telis tractaque de niveo vellere ducta putat. Hanc animo gaudente vident iuvenumque catervae Conmemorant merito tot mala ferre senem, Hanc Venus exalto flentem sublimis Olympo
c. 50 BCE – 19 BCE, Albius Tibullus, Elegiae 1.6.82
Latīnē defined in Latin in our graded readers
quī multōs annōs vīxit; capillī albī, gradus tardus.Choosing the right word Döderlein's Latin Synonyms
Puer · Infans · Adolescens · Juvenis · Vir · Vetus · Senex
Puer (from parere, πάϊς,) in a wider sense, is the man in his dependent years, so long as he neither can be, nor is, the father of a family, as a young person, in three periods, as infans, νήπιος, παιδίον, from his first years till he is seven; as puer, in a narrower sense, παῖς, from his seventh year till he is sixteen; as commencing adolescens (from ἄλθειν) a youngster, μειράκιον, νεανίας, from his sixteenth year. Juvenis, in a wider sense, is as long as he remains in his years of greatest strength, from about the time of his being of age to the first appearances of advanced age, as the young man νέος, which also may be divided into three periods;—as ceasing to be adolescens, from his eighteenth year; as juvenis (from ζέω) in a narrower sense, νεανίας, from his four-and-twentieth year; as beginning to be vir, ἀνήρ, from his thirtieth year. Maturus is the man in his ripest years, when the wild fire of youth has evaporated, and may be divided into three periods;—as ceasing to be vir, ἀνήρ, from his fortieth year; as vetus, γέρων, from his fiftieth year; as senex, (ἄναξ) πρεσβύτης, from his sixtieth year. (v. 45.)
Vetus · Senex · Grandævus · Longævus · Senecta · Senectus · Senium
1. Vetus homo (ἔτος) denotes an old man, from the fiftieth year of his life, in opp. to juvenis, a young man, like γέρων; whereas senex (ἄναξ? or ἕνους ἔχων?), an old man from his sixtieth year, with the accessory notion of his being worthy of respect, like πρεσβύτης; lastly, grandævus and longævus denote a very aged man, who has already exceeded the usual duration of life, and who is, consequently, somewhere about eighty or upwards. 2. Senecta denotes old age indifferently, merely as a period of life; senectus, as a venerable and experienced age, that commands respect and indulgence; senium, the infirm and burdensome age, which is to be looked upon as a disease. (iv. 89.)
Declension
| form | singular | plural |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | senex | senēs |
| genitive | senis | senum senium |
| dative | senī | senibus |
| accusative | senem | senēs |
| ablative | sene | senibus |
| vocative | senex | senēs |
Phrases from Meissner's Latin Phrase-Book
- admodum adulescens, senex
- still quote a young (old) man.
(paterfamilias) vendat boves vetulos, plostrum vetus, ferramenta vetera, servum senem, etc., Cato, R. R. 2, 7: hic est vetus, vietus, veternosus senex, Ter. Eun. 4, 4, 21: nam vere pusus tu, tua amica senex, Papin. ap. Varr. L. L. 7, § 28 Müll.: turpe senex miles, turpe senilis amor, Ov. Am. 1, 9, 4: cervi, id. A. A. 3, 78: latrans, Phaedr. 5, 10, 7: porci, Juv. 6, 159: cygni, Mart. 5, 37, 1: mulli, id. 10, 30, 24: Bacchus (i. e. vinum), id. 13, 23; cf. of the same, auctumni, id. 3, 58, 7: Damascena (pruna), id. 5, 18, 3 et saep.: admodum senex, Cic. Sen. 4, 10: nemo est tam senex qui se annum non putet posse vivere, id. ib. 7, 24: nomen Nostra tuum senibus loqueretur pagina seclis, in later ages, Verg. Cir. 40.—Comp.: grandior seniorque, Lucr. 3, 955: Cato, quo erat nemo fere senior temporibus illis, Cic. Lael. 1, 5: quae vis senior est quam, etc., id. Leg. 2, 4, 9: corpora seniora, Cels. 5, 28, 4: anni, Ov. M. 15, 470: dens, Mart. 9, 58, 11: cadus, id. 9, 94, 2.—Rarely with aetate: Sophocles, aetate jam senior, Val. Max. 4, 3, 2 ext.: nobis adulescentibus seniores in agendo facti praecipere solebant, ne, etc., Quint. 5, 6, 6: senior ut ita dicam, quam illa aetas ferebat, oratio, more mature, Cic. Brut. 43, 160.—ut tum ad senem senex de senectute, sic, etc., Cic. Lael. 1, 5: quos ait Caccilius comicos stul tos senes, etc. ... ut petulantia magis est adulescentium quam senum ... sic ista senilis stultitia senum levium est ... Appius et caecus et senex, etc. ... senem, in quo est adulescentis aliquid, probo, etc., id. Sen. 11, 36 sq.: senem in patriam revertentem, unde puer profectus sum (the words of Hannibal, who was not yet fifty years of age), Liv. 30, 30: mixta senum ac juvenum densentur funera, Hor. C. 1, 28, 19; cf.: haec recinunt juvenes dictata senesque, id. Ep. 1, 1, 55: aeque neglectum pueris senibusque nocebit, id. ib. 1, 1, 26: ter aevo functus senex, i. e. Nestor, id. C. 2, 9, 14: tun' capite cano amas, senex nequissime? Plaut. Merc. 2, 2, 34: quo senex nequior nullus vivit, id. Cas. 5, 1, 10: te sene omnium senem neminem esse ignaviorem, id. ib. 2, 3, 28 et saep.—Fem.: hanc tot mala ferre senem, this old woman, Tib. 1, 6, 82; Val. Fl. 1, 349; Stat. Th. 5, 149.— Comp., an elder, elderly person; sometimes (esp. in the poets) also for senex, an aged person: facilius sanescit puer vel adulescens quam senior, Cels. 5, 26, 6: si quis Forte coheredum senior male tussiet, Hor. S. 2, 5, 107: vix ea fatus erat senior (i. e. Anchises), Verg. A. 2, 692; so, = senex, Ov. M. 1, 645; 2, 702; 11, 646; 12, 182; 12, 540; id. F. 4, 515; Stat. S. 1, 3, 94; id. Achill. 2, 383 al.: (Servius Tullius) seniores a junioribus divisit, Cic. Rep. 2, 22, 39; cf. of the same: C. Tubero in Historiarum primo scripsit, Servium Tullium ... eos (milites) ab anno septimo decimo ad annum quadragesimum sextum juniores, supraque eum annum seniores appellasse, Gell. 10, 28, 1: centuriae juniorum seniorumque, Liv. 1, 43.—Poet.: centuriae seniorum simply, for seniores, Hor. A. P. 341: curae fuit consulibus et senioribus Patrum, ut, etc., Liv. 2, 30: consulares ac seniores (opp. juniores Patrum), id. 3, 41: omnium seniorum, matrum familiae, virginum precibus et fletu excitati, Caes. B. C. 2, 4: sapienter, ut senior, suaserat, Flor. 1, 16, 10: juniores a senioribus consilium petiverunt, id. 2, 6, 26: haec ... laeti audiere juvenes, ingrata senioribus erant, Curt. 8, 1, 27: hinc inter juniores senesque orta contentio est, id. 8, 1, 31.—In eccl. Lat., an elder in the synagogue or church, Vulg. Ezech. 7, 26; id. 2 Johan. 1.Origins
PIE word *sénos From Proto-Italic *seneks, from Proto-Indo-European *sénos (“old”). Cognates include Lithuanian senis (“old man”), Ancient Greek ἕνος (hénos), Old Irish sen, Proto-Brythonic *hen, Avestan 𐬵𐬀𐬥𐬀 (hana, “old”), Sanskrit सन (sána) and Gothic 𐍃𐌹𐌽𐌴𐌹𐌲𐍃 (sineigs). The use in Latin of an athematic declension with two different stems (nominative senek- and oblique sen-), versus thematic declension in other Indo-European languages, is an unresolved puzzle. More information According to one hypothesis, the stem sen- (seen in oblique forms such as senem, sene, senum) replaced an earlier thematic stem *seno- because of analogy to the stem iuven- of the antonym iuvenis (“young man”). The nominative singular of a non-neuter n-stem noun usually ends in -ō, but this ending came to be avoided in Latin when it would produce a monosyllabic form (compare canis from *ḱwṓ). Hence, in place of hypothetical *sō (or per Sihler, *sē), the nominative singular form senex, built on the stem senek-, came to be used alongside oblique forms built on the shorter stem sen-. Schrijver and De Vaan both express doubt about this analogical explanation for the origin of the stem sen-. The origin of the stem senek- is also debated. It may simply continue a suffix containing PIE *k or *ḱ: compare -icus, -āx. An alternative, controversial hypothesis proposes that the PIE laryngeal *h₂ could develop into /k/ before /s/ in certain cases. Alternatively, the apparent discrepancy between the nominative senex and the oblique root sen- may reflect a Proto-Italic root *seneɣ-, which in Old Latin would yield senex in the nominative and *seneh- (later contracted to sen-) in the oblique.
- Occitansenecfrom Vulgar Latin *senicus
- Occitansanecfrom Vulgar Latin *senicus
- Romaniansânecfrom Vulgar Latin *senicus
- Romaniansinecfrom Vulgar Latin *senicus
- Old Frenchsené
- Aromaniansinrecufrom Vulgar Latin *senicus
- Neapolitansanicefrom Vulgar Latin *senicus
- Old Italiansenicifrom Vulgar Latin *senicus
- Englishsenex
- Italiansene