optimate

English

Etymology

From Latin optimātēs, masculine plural form of optimās (“best, noblest”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɒptɪmeɪt/

Noun

optimate (plural optimates)

1. (historical) A member of the patrician ruling class in republican Ancient Rome; an aristocrat, a noble.
   • 1980, Gene Wolfe, chapter XII, in The Shadow of the Torturer (The Book of the New Sun; 1), New York: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 112:

     The elaboration of her sateen costume (somewhat dirty and torn now) showed that she was an optimate.

   • 2011, Norman Davies, Vanished Kingdoms, Penguin, published 2012, page 23:

     Over the same decade, the upper stratum of Visigothic society, the optimates gradually lost their influence.

Translations

member of the patrician ruling class in republican Ancient Rome

• Dutch: optimaat m
• French: optimate m
• German: Optimat (de) m, Optimatin (de) f
• Italian: ottimate (it)

Latin

Noun

optimāte

1. ablative singular of optimās

Spanish

Verb

optimate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of optimar combined with te