absens

Latin

Alternative forms

• apsēns

Etymology

Present active participle of absum (“be away from, absent”)

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈab.sens/, [ˈäps̠ẽːs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈab.sens/, [ˈäbsens]

Participle

absēns (genitive absentis); third-declension one-termination participle

1. absent, missing, away, away from, distant, gone, gone away
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 4.83:

     [...] illum absēns absentem auditque videtque; [...].

     [Although] he has gone away, she [still] hears and sees [her] missing [love].
     (Nominative and accusative forms side-by-side: The poetic collocation doubly emphasizes how much Dido misses Aeneas, and how he remains in her thoughts even when he is away.)

Declension

Third-declension participle.

Number	Singular			Plural
Case / Gender	Masc./Fem.	Neuter		Masc./Fem.	Neuter
Nominative	absēns			absentēs	absentia
Genitive	absentis			absentium
Dative	absentī			absentibus
Accusative	absentem	absēns		absentēs absentīs	absentia
Ablative	absente absentī1			absentibus
Vocative	absēns			absentēs	absentia

¹When used purely as an adjective.

Related terms

• absentia
• absentīvus
• absentō
• absum

Descendants

• Asturian: ausente
• Catalan: absent
• English: absent
• French: absent, sans
• Galician: ausente
• → Old High German: abawesan (calque)
  • German: abwesend
• Italian: assente
• Portuguese: ausente
• Romanian: absent
• Spanish: ausente

References

• “absens”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “absens”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• absens 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)
• absens in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.