acetum

English

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin acētum.

Noun

acetum (plural acetums or aceta)

1. (obsolete) Vinegar, sometimes medicated.

Anagrams

• cumate, macute, mucate

Latin

Alternative forms

• 🜊 (alchemy)

Etymology

From aceō (“to be sour”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /aˈkeː.tum/, [äˈkeːt̪ʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /aˈt͡ʃe.tum/, [äˈt͡ʃɛːt̪um]

Noun

acētum n (genitive acētī); second declension

1. vinegar
   • c. 69 CE – 122 CE, Suetonius, De vita Caesarum 4 37:

     Nepōtātus sūmptibus omnium prōdigōrum ingenia superāvit, commentus novum balneārum ūsum, portentōsissima genera cibōrum atque cēnārum, ut calidīs frīgidīsque unguentīs lavārētur, prētiōsissima margarīta acētō liquefacta sorbēret, convīvīs ex aurō pānēs et obsōnia appōneret, aut frūgī hominem esse oportere dictitāns aut Caesarem.

     • 1889 translation by Alexander Thomson

       In the devices of his profuse expenditure, he surpassed all the prodigals that ever lived; inventing a new kind of bath, with strange dishes and suppers, washing in precious unguents, both warm and cold, drinking pearls of immense value dissolved in vinegar, and serving up for his guests loaves and other victuals modelled in gold; often saying, " that a man ought either to be a good economist or an emperor."

2. (figuratively) wit, shrewdness

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

	singular	plural
nominative	acētum	acēta
genitive	acētī	acētōrum
dative	acētō	acētīs
accusative	acētum	acēta
ablative	acētō	acētīs
vocative	acētum	acēta

Derived terms

• acētābulum
• acētāria
• acetulum
• acētōsus
• *acētillum (Vulgar Latin)

Descendants

• Italo-Dalmatian
  • Dalmatian: acait, akait, acaid
  • Istriot: azì
  • Italian: aceto
  • Neapolitan: acìto
  • Sicilian: acitu
• Padanian:
  • Friulian: asêt
  • Ligurian: axòu
  • Lombard: axed
  • Piedmontese: asèj
  • Romansch: aschieu, ischiu, aschaid
  • Venetan: axéo, axédo, axé
• Sardinian: achedu, aghedu, achetu
  • Campidanese: acedu
• West Iberian
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: azedo (“vinegar”)
    • Galician: acedo (“sour”)
    • Portuguese: azedo (“sour”)
  • Spanish: acedo
• ⇒ Vulgar Latin: *acētillum
  • Piedmontese: asil
  • Old French: aisil
    • French: aisy
    • → Middle English: aisel, aisille, aysel
      • English: eisel, eisell (obsolete)
      • → Welsh: aesel
• → Gothic: 𐌰𐌺𐌴𐌹𐍄 (akeit), 𐌰𐌺𐌴𐍄 (akēt)
• → Old Irish: aicét, aigéd
  • Irish: aigéad
• → Proto-Slavic: *ocьtъ (see there for further descendants)
• → Proto-West Germanic: *aket (see there for further descendants)
• → English: acetum (learned)

References

• “acetum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “acetum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• acetum in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• acetum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “acetum”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers