vanitas

English

A vanitas painting by Harmen Steenwijck

Etymology

From Latin vānitās. Doublet of vanity.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈvæn.ɪˌtɑs/

Noun

vanitas (plural vanitases)

1. (painting) A type of still life painting, symbolic of mortality, characteristic of Dutch painting of the 16th and 17th centuries.
   • 2009 March 6, Holland Cotter, “Change and Permanence, Captured by Cameras”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     In her straight-ahead photographs of storefronts, an arrangement of shoes or shrink-wrapped furniture becomes a vanitas still life.

Translations

type of still life painting

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 虛空畫 / 虚空画 (xūkōnghuà)

• Japanese: ヴァニタス (vanitasu)
• Polish: vanitas (pl)

See also

• memento mori

Further reading

• vanitas on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Ivatans

Latin

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂-

Proto-Italic *wānos

Latin vānus

Latin -tās

Latin vānitās

From vānus + -tās.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈwaː.nɪ.taːs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈvaː.ni.tas]

Noun

vānitās f (genitive vānitātis); third declension

1. emptiness, nothingness

   vanitas vanitatum ― vanity of vanities

2. falsity, falsehood, deception, untruth, untrustworthiness, fickleness
3. vanity, vainglory

Declension

Third-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	vānitās	vānitātēs
genitive	vānitātis	vānitātum
dative	vānitātī	vānitātibus
accusative	vānitātem	vānitātēs
ablative	vānitāte	vānitātibus
vocative	vānitās	vānitātēs

Derived terms

• vānitāre

Descendants

• ⇒? Aromanian: vãnãtati
• → Asturian: vanidá (learned)
• → Catalan: vanitat (learned)
• → English: vanitas (learned)
• Old Franco-Provençal: vanitá
  • Franco-Provençal: vanitá
• → Old French: vanité (learned)
  • Middle French: vanité
    • → Middle English: vanite
      • English: vanity
    • French: vanité
• → Friulian: vanitât (learned)
• → Italian: vanità (learned)
  • → Maltese: vanità
• → Piedmontese: vanità (learned)
• Old Galician-Portuguese: vãydade, vãidade
  • Galician: vaidade
  • Portuguese: vaidade
• → Portuguese: vanidade (learned)
• Romanian: vântă, vintă
• → Romanian: vanitate (learned)
• Old Spanish: vanedad
  • Spanish: vanedad
• → Spanish: vanidad (learned)

References

• “vanitas”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “vanitas”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "vanitas", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “vanitas”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.