# vates
## English
### Etymology

From Latin vātēs, from Proto-Indo-European *weh₂t- (“excited, possessed”); cognate with Proto-Celtic *wātis (“seer”) (Gaulish ουατεις, Old Irish fáith, Welsh gwawd) and Proto-Germanic *wōdaz (“mad”) (Old English wōd (“mad, frenzied”), Gothic 𐍅𐍉𐌳𐍃 (wōds, “possessed, mad”), Old High German wuot (“mad, madness”). More at wood (“crazy, mad, insane”) and wode.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈveɪtiz/

### Noun

vates
* A poet or bard who is divinely inspired.
** 1833 May, “Hayward’s Translation of Goethe’s “Faust””, in Fraser’s Magazine for Town and Country, volume VII, number XLI, London: James Fraser […], →OCLC, page 532, column 1:[Percy Bysshe] Shelley, a true vates, was called upon by their divine influence to render some choice passages from this very Faust, which, from confessed inability, [Francis Leveson-]Gower had left unattempted in his precious version, and some which from other motives he had purposely reticensed.
** 1999, Dennis Richard Danielson, The Cambridge Companion to Milton, Cambridge University Press, page 57:The volume is haunted by the death of the vates (poet-prophet) Orpheus, who failed to revive Eurydice from death and was then torn apart by maenads.

#### Derived terms

* sacer vates

#### Translations
### Anagrams

* Avest., stave, Vesta, evats, Stave, vesta, Sveta

## Latin
### Alternative forms

* vātis

### Etymology

From Proto-Italic *wātis, from Proto-Indo-European *wéh₂t-i-s (“seer”), from *weh₂t- (“to be excited”).

### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈu̯aː.teːs/, [ˈu̯äːt̪eːs̠]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈva.tes/, [ˈväːt̪es]

### Noun

vātēs m or f (genitive vātis); third declension
* seer, soothsayer, diviner, prophet, prophetess
** 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 4.65:Heu, vātum ignārae mentēs!Alas, the unknowing minds of diviners! (Ambiguity: The statement may refer either to the haruspices accompanying Dido and Anna, or to the sisters’ own misinterpretations of the extispicia.)
** 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 1.585–586:at fēlīx vātēs, ut dīs grātissima vīxit, possidet hunc Iānī sīc dea mēnsē diem.But the fortunate prophetess, since her life was most pleasing to the gods, thus as a goddess has a day in this month of Janus. (The prophetess who became honored as a goddess is Carmenta).
* poet, poetess, bard
    Synonym: poēta
* oracle

#### Declension

Third-declension noun (i-stem).

#### Derived terms

* vāticinor

#### Descendants

* Catalan: vat
* English: vates
* French: vate
* Italian: vate
* Portuguese: vate
* Spanish: vate

### References

* “vates”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “vates”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
* vates 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)
* vates in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
* De Vaan, Michiel (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7)‎, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN

## Latvian
### Noun

vates f
* genitive singular of vate

## Spanish
### Noun

vates m pl
* plural of vate

## Volapük
### Noun

vates
* dative plural of vat