出典:Wiktionary
出典:『Wiktionary』 (2025/11/29 00:34 UTC 版)
Unknown. Suggestions include Proto-Indo-European *kéywelos (“alone”), whence Sanskrit केवल (kévala, “alone”), but the root is obscure and the suffix unexplained. Alternatively, possibly a suffixation of the similarly-shaped Proto-Indo-European *koyl- (see *kéh₂ilos (“safe, unharmed, whole”)), via unattested *cael, though the b in the Latin form remains mysterious.
caelebs (genitive caelibis); third-declension one-termination adjective
Third-declension one-termination adjective (non-i-stem).
| singular | plural | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| masc./fem. | neuter | masc./fem. | neuter | ||
| nominative | caelebs | caelibēs | — | ||
| genitive | caelibis | caelibum | |||
| dative | caelibī | caelibibus | |||
| accusative | caelibem | caelebs | caelibīs caelibēs |
— | |
| ablative | caelibe | caelibibus | |||
| vocative | caelebs | caelibēs | — | ||
No neuter nominative/accusative/vocative plural form is attested prior to New Latin. The form *caeliba is given by some New Latin grammars and is attested in some English works in the context of Latin-based taxonomic jargon. The use of the ending -a instead of -ia is consistent with the consonant-stem inflection in the rest of the paradigm, but the form is dubious because in practice very few positive adjectives of the third declension have an attested consonant-stem neuter plural form in -a (even if they have an ablative singular in -e and a genitive plural in -um). Given the fact that Latin neuter nouns are typically inanimate, the scarcity of attestations in the neuter is to some extent a consequence of the word's meaning; however, metonymic use would theoretically be possible, as in the expression caelebs vita.