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”),[1] via unattested *cael.

Pronunciation

(Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈkae̯.lebs/, [ˈkäe̯ɫ̪ɛps̠]

(modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃe.lebs/, [ˈt͡ʃɛːlebs]

Adjective

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

unmarried, single
Synonym: vacuus
- 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.

Declension

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

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

Because of the word's meaning and the fact that neuter nouns are typically inanimate, neuter uses of the adjective are expected to be rare or absent (although metonymic use, as in Horace's caelibe vita, would be theoretically possible). No neuter nominative/accusative/vocative plural form is attested in the corpus of Classical Latin texts. Some New Latin grammars give the form as *caeliba,[2] which is consistent with the consonant-stem inflection in the rest of the paradigm: note however that only a few positive adjectives have attested consonant-stem neuter plural forms in -a.

Derived terms

caelibātus (see there for further descendants)

Descendants

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

References

De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “caelebs”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 80
Richard Lloyd (1653) The Latine grammar. Or, A guide teaching a compendious way to attaine exact skill in the Latine tongue for a proper congruity and elegant variety of phrases in prose and verse. Published for the common good in continuation of a former guide, teaching to read English rightly, and write accordingly., page 54: “All Adjectives or Substantives neuter increasing short, and monosyllable Substantives that end in us encreasing long, make the Nominative plurall in a. and the Genitive plurall in um as caeliba caelibum”