legatus

Perfect passive participle of lēgō (“send, despatch”).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /leːˈɡaː.tus/, [ɫ̪eːˈɡäːt̪ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /leˈɡa.tus/, [leˈɡäːt̪us]

lēgātus m (genitive lēgātī); second declension

1. envoy, ambassador, legate
2. deputy
3. commander, lieutenant
   • c. 52 BCE, Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico 6.6:

     Caesar partitis copiis cum Gaio Fabio legato et Marco Crasso quaestore celeriterque effectis pontibus adit tripertito, aedificia vicosque incendit, magno pecoris atque hominum numero potitur.

     Caesar, having divided his forces with C. Fabius, his lieutenant, and M. Crassus his questor, and having hastily constructed some bridges, enters their country in three divisions, burns their houses and villages, and gets possession of a large number of cattle and men.

Second-declension noun.

• lēgātiō
• lēgātōrius

lēgātus (feminine lēgāta, neuter lēgātum); first/second-declension participle

1. sent, despatched, having been sent.

First/second-declension adjective.

• “legatus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “legatus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• legatus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• legatus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “legatus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “legatus”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin