cautes

Latin

Alternative forms

cōtes

Etymology

Likely a hypercorrection of cōtēs, the plural of cōs (“whetstone, sharpening stone”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱeh₃- (“to sharpen”), so originally meaning “sharp points, promontories”.^[1] See plaudō~plōdō for another possible example of the same hypercorrection. Cognates include Latin catus (“clever, cunning”), cōs (“whetstone”), cuneus (“wedge”) and Ancient Greek κῶνος (kônos, “cone”).

A different suggestion relates it to English heap and Tocharian B kauc (“up, high”), from an irregular-shaped root, as well as with English high, a connection rejected by modern etymologists. The three different stop consonants t~p~k under this suggestion likewise remain unexplained.^[2]

Noun

cautēs f (genitive cautis); third declension

a rough, craggy or pointed rock, or cliff; rock, crag
- 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 4.366–367:
  “[...] sed dūrīs genuit tē cautibus horrēns / Caucasus, Hyrcānaeque admōrunt ūbera tigrēs.”
  “But the hard, horrible Caucasus bore you on [its] jagged cliffs, and Hyrcanian tigresses took you to their teats.”
  (Dido portrays Aeneas as being hard-hearted and inhuman. Syncopation: admorunt = admoverunt.)

Declension

Third-declension noun (i-stem).

	singular	plural
nominative	cautēs	cautēs
genitive	cautis	cautium
dative	cautī	cautibus
accusative	cautem	cautēs cautīs
ablative	caute	cautibus
vocative	cautēs	cautēs

References

^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “cōs”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 139
^ Pisani, Vittore (1954) “Lat. cautēs, toch. B kauc A koc”, in Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung auf dem Gebiete der Indogermanischen Sprachen (in German), volume 72. 1./2., →DOI, pages 95–97