caelebs

Latin

Alternative forms

• coelebs
• cēlebs (Medieval Latin)

Etymology

Unknown. Suggestions include Proto-Indo-European *kéywelos (“alone”), but root obscure and suffix unexplained, see also Sanskrit केवल (kévala, “alone”); possibly a suffixation of Proto-Indo-European *koyl- *keh₂i-lo- (“safe, unharmed, whole”), via unattested *cael.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈkae̯.lebs/, [ˈkäe̯ɫ̪ɛps̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃe.lebs/, [ˈt͡ʃɛːlebs]

Adjective

caelebs (genitive caelibis); third-declension one-termination adjective

1. (usually of a person) unmarried, single

   Synonym: vacuus

2. (of a thing) associated with or pertaining to being single, solitary or unmarried
   • Horatius, epistulae, liber I. In: Horace Satires, Epistles and Ars poetica with an English translation by H. Rushton Fairclough, 1942, p. 258 f.:

     Nil ait esse prius, melius nil caelibe vita.
     Si non est, iurat bene solis esse maritis.

     "Nothing," he says, "is finer or better than a single life." If it is not, he swears that only the married are well off.

   • c. 84 BCE – 54 BCE, Catullus, carmina 68A.6:

     Quod mihi fortuna casuque oppressus acerbo
     conscriptum hoc lacrimis mittis epistolium,
     naufragum ut eiectum spumantibus aequoris undis
     sublevem et a mortis limine restituam,
     quem neque sancta Venus molli requiescere somno
     desertum in lecto caelibe perpetitur,
     nec veterum dulci scriptorum carmine Musae
     oblectant, cum mens anxia pervigilat:
     id gratumst mihi, me quoniam tibi dicis amicum,
     muneraque et Musarum hinc petis et Veneris.

     • 1913 translation by F. W. Cornish, J. P. Postgate, J. W. Mackail, G. P. Goold

       That you, weighed down as you are by fortune and bitter chance, should send me this letter written with tears, to bid me succour a shipwrecked man cast up by the foaming waters of the sea, and restore him from the threshold of death, whom neither does holy Venus suffer to rest, deserted in his widowed bed, nor do the Muses charm him with the sweet poetry of ancient writers, when his mind keeps anxious vigil;—this is grateful to me, since you call me your friend, and come to me for the gifts of the Muses and of Love.

   • 43 BCE – c. 17 CE, Ovid, The Heroines 13.107:

     Aucupor in lecto mendaces caelibe somnos; / dum careo veris gaudia falsa iuvant.

     • 1914 translation by Grant Showerman, G. P. Goold

       I, in my widowed couch, can only court a sleep with lying dreams; while true joys fail me, false ones must delight.

3. (New Latin, taxonomy) of a genus name: not yet formally associated with any specific epithet as part of a complete binomial species name
   • 1951, G. H. Swynnerton, R. W. Hayman, “A Checklist of the Land Mammals of the Tanganyika Territory and the Zanzibar Protectorate”, in Journal of the East Africa Natural History Society, volume 20, numbers 6-7 (overall work in English), page 321:

     Cuvier mentioned no specific names in connection with his new genus Otomys and it would appear to be a genus caelebs.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1955, J. D. Campbell, I. C. McKellar, “The Otapirian Stage of the Triassic System of New Zealand, Part I”, in Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 83, 1955-56‎^[1] (overall work in English), Royal Society of New Zealand, page 696:

     He named Clavigera and Rastelligera as new brachiopod genera to accomodate these forms, but no species being cited by him here or in a further publication (1878b), these remained genera caeliba. ¶ McKay (1878, pp . 87-9) listed fossils - mainly as genera - collected by him from 14 Otapirian localities in the Hokonui Hills.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1967, A. Logan, Middle and Upper Triassic Spiriferinid Brachiopods from the Canadian Arctic Archipelago (overall work in English), page 24:

     Again, no nominal species were associated with the subgenus; Hector evidently intended to publish a full paper, with subgeneric and specific designations, sometime in the early 1880's, but the work never appeared (although the plates were prepared) and Rastelligera thus became a "genus caelebs." Meanwhile the manuscript name continued to be published-McKay (1881, p. 44) listed Rastelligera taylori Hector (a "nomen nudum", as it is another manuscript name) from the Otapirian of the Mataura River; Hector himself (1886) published figures of an unnamed species of Rastelligera. ¶ Thomson (1913, p. 50) was concerned over the validity of Hector's "genera caeliba" and printed Hector's unpublished plates, with identifications "fide" McKay, in an attempt to clarify the situation.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1970, A. G. Beu, “Ametistina Schinz, 1825 (Gastropoda, Family Janthinidae): Request for Suppression under the Plenary Powers. Z.N.(S.) 1894”, in Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature, volume 27, number 1 (overall work in English), page 44:

     Schinz (1825 : 586), in a German edition of Cuvier's "Le Regne Animal", erected the genus-group name Ametistina in the bald statement "Ametistina Lam. Janthina", in a list of generic names that apparently represent the divisions (recognized at that time) of Linnaeus' genera of Mollusca; i.e. Ametistina is listed under Helix. Thus as first erected, the name must be interpreted as a genus caelebs, and if available may later have species placed in it.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Declension

Third-declension one-termination adjective (non-i-stem).

Number	Singular			Plural
Case / Gender	Masc./Fem.	Neuter		Masc./Fem.	Neuter
Nominative	caelebs			caelibēs	—
Genitive	caelibis			caelibum
Dative	caelibī			caelibibus
Accusative	caelibem	caelebs		caelibēs	—
Ablative	caelibe			caelibibus
Vocative	caelebs			caelibēs	—

No neuter nominative/accusative/vocative plural form is attested prior to New Latin. The form *caeliba is given by some New Latin grammars and is attested in some English works in the context of Latin-based taxonomic jargon. The use of the ending -a instead of -ia is consistent with the consonant-stem inflection in the rest of the paradigm, but the form is dubious because in practice very few positive adjectives of the third declension have an attested consonant-stem neuter plural form in -a (even if they have an ablative singular in -e and a genitive plural in -um). Neuter uses of the adjective might be expected to be rare in any case because of the word's meaning (given the fact that neuter nouns are typically inanimate), but metonymic use, as in Horace's caelibe vita, would theoretically be possible.

Derived terms

• caelibātus (see there for further descendants)

Descendants

• Galician: ceibe (“free to roam”)
• Italian: celibe
• Sicilian: cèlibbi
• Spanish: célibe

Further reading

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