angustus

Latin

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *h₂enǵʰ-

Proto-Indo-European *-os

Proto-Indo-European *h₂énǵʰosder.

Proto-Italic *angostos

Latin angustus

From Proto-Indo-European *h₂enǵʰ- (“narrow, tight”) via a neuter s-stem noun *h₂enǵʰ-os (“narrowness”) combined with the adjective-forming suffix *-tós (equivalent to -tus). Comparative data does not establish when the adjective was derived, but its form would hypothetically correspond to *h₂enǵʰostos in Proto-Indo-European and to *angostos in Proto-Italic or Pre-Latin: this became angustus by the Latin sound change of vowel reduction, which replaced *o with /u/ in non-initial closed syllables. The neuter s-stem noun (Proto-Indo-European *h₂enǵʰ-os, Proto-Italic *angos) would have evolved regularly in Classical Latin to *angus, *angeris if it had survived. Another word potentially derived from this noun is the name of the goddess Angerōna.

The root is also found in Latin angō and angor, and in German eng, Sanskrit अंहु (áṃhu), Old Church Slavonic ѫзъкъ (ǫzŭkŭ).

For the ending, compare onustus, venustus.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [aŋˈɡʊs.tʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [aŋˈɡus.tus]

Adjective

angustus (feminine angusta, neuter angustum, comparative angustior, superlative angustissimus); first/second-declension adjective

1. (of space) narrow, close, contracted, constricted, confined, small, not spacious
   • c. 52 BCE, Julius Caesar, Commentarii de bello Gallico 1.2:

     Prō multitūdine autem hominum et prō glōriā bellī atque fortitūdinis angustōs sē fīnēs habēre arbitrābantur, quī in longitūdinem mīlia passuum CCXL, in lātitūdinem CLXXX patēbant.

     However, on account of the great number of people and their reputation for war and bravery, they thought that they had narrow boundaries, which extended 240 [Roman] miles in length and 180 in width.

2. (as a substantive) narrow, strait
3. (figuratively) short, brief
   • 8 CE – 12 CE, Ovidius, Tristia 5:

     Efficit angustos nec mihi bruma dies.

     Winter does not make the days short (for me).

Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

	singular				plural
	masculine	feminine	neuter		masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	angustus	angusta	angustum		angustī	angustae	angusta
genitive	angustī	angustae	angustī		angustōrum	angustārum	angustōrum
dative	angustō	angustae	angustō		angustīs
accusative	angustum	angustam	angustum		angustōs	angustās	angusta
ablative	angustō	angustā	angustō		angustīs
vocative	anguste	angusta	angustum		angustī	angustae	angusta

Synonyms

• artus, brevis, contractus

Antonyms

• lātus

Derived terms

• angustē
• angusti-
• angustia
• angusticlāvius
• angustō
• angustum
• coangustus
• perangustus

Related terms

• angiportus
• angor

Descendants

• Balkano-Romance:
  • Aromanian: ngustu
  • Romanian: îngust
  • → Albanian: ngushtë
• Italo-Romance:
  • >? Italian: angusto
• Gallo-Romance:
  • Occitan: angost
    • Gascon: engous
• Ibero-Romance:
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: angosto
    • Galician: angosto
  • Spanish: angosto
• Borrowings:
  • → English: angust
  • → French: anguste
  • → Portuguese: angusto

Further reading

• “angustus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “angustus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “angustus”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • (ambiguous) credit is low throughout Italy: fides tota Italia est angusta
    
• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002), “angustus”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), volume 24: Refonte A–Aorte, page 575