Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Of or belonging to the optimates or nobility; noble.
- n. One of the optimates.
Wiktionary
- n. historical A member of the patrician ruling class in republican Ancient Rome; an aristocrat, a noble.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. rare, rare, rare Of or pertaining to the nobility or aristocracy.
Etymologies
- From Latin optimātēs, masculine plural form of optimās ("best, noblest"). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Marius completely underestimated his optimate adversaries.”
“Caesar, as consul, employed Pompey's veterans to overcome violently optimate opposition.”
“But the optimate senate, led by M. Porcius Cato, refused to ratify his eastern settlement and blocked a land bill for his veterans.”
“In Rome the tribune P. Clodius pursued a popularis program (e.g., free grain), thwarting optimate opposition with gangs of thugs organized under the guise of legitimate collegia (clubs).”
“His opponents retaliated by having the optimate tribune T. Annius Milo organize his own band of thugs.”
“The Marian leader Q. Sertorius held optimate generals at bay in Spain.”
“He had tried to ensure senatorial rule and optimate supremacy against the challenges of tribunes and generals like himself.”
“L. Cornelius Sulla, a successful optimate general in the Social War and consul in 88, received the command against Mithridates.”
“The popularis consul of 87, L. Cornelius Cinna, went to war with his optimate colleague and captured Rome with the support of Marius, who then began slaughtering his optimate enemies.”
“He raised an army but was defeated in 77 by his optimate colleague, Q. Lutatius Catulus, and Pompey.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘optimate’.
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Gene Wolfe
Please contribute your favorite words from any of Gene Wolfe’s books to this prize-winning list.
In case you come across words in this list which are too commonplace to fit in, please ...gallipot, roost, badelaire, oblesque, execration, dhole, amschaspand, arctother, chalcedony, penitence, asimi, autarch and 839 more...
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phrontistery - o
from phrontistery.info
oakum, oakus, oast, obambulate, obdormition, obduracy, obedible, obedientiary, obeism, obeliscolychny, obelize, obelus and 504 more...
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Dash's list
Words of interest.
cacogen, fricatrice, destrier, swoon, multiverse, haggard, entranced, entheogen, passionate, ascendant, conciliator, bandylegged and 34 more...
Tweets
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Telofy "(...) and the great families—then as now—preferred to inter their long-limbed dead in vaults on their own estates. But the armigers and optimates of the city favored the highest slopes, near the Citadel wall;" -- Gene Wolfe, The Book of the New Sun Oct 1, 2008