English
vates
Vates comes from Latin vātēs ‘seer, soothsayer, diviner, prophet, prophetess’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *weh₂t- ‘excited, possessed’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*weh₂t-‘excited, possessed’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*wéh₂t-i-s‘seer’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*wātisreconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvātēs‘seer, soothsayer, diviner, prophet, prophetess’
- Englishearliest quotation 1833vates
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*weh₂t-‘excited, possessed’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*wéh₂t-i-s‘seer’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*wātisreconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvātēs‘seer, soothsayer, diviner, prophet, prophetess’
- Englishearliest quotation 1833vates
Earliest quotation: 1833, Hayward’s Translation of Goethe’s “Faust: “[Percy Bysshe] Shelley, a true vates, was called upon…”
Every English word from Proto-Indo-European *weh₂t-
Today it means
noun A poet or bard who is divinely inspired.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *weh₂t- / vates