tabes

Borrowed from Latin tābēs.

• IPA^(key): /ˈteɪbiːz/
• Rhymes: -eɪbiz
• Rhymes: -eɪbiːz

tabes (countable and uncountable, plural tabes)

1. (medicine) A kind of slow bodily wasting or emaciating disease, often accompanying a chronic disease.
   1. (more specifically) Tabes dorsalis.

• Bates, Beast, Sebat, abets, baste, bates, beast, beats, besat, betas, esbat

From Proto-Indo-European *teh₂- (“to melt”). Cognates include Sanskrit तोय (toya, “water”), Ancient Greek τήκω (tḗkō, “to melt”), τῖφος (tîphos, “pond, swamp”), Old English þawian and English thaw. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈtaː.beːs/, [ˈt̪äːbeːs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈta.bes/, [ˈt̪äːbes]

tābēs f (genitive tābis); third declension

1. the act of wasting away (due to a disease or by other means: especially of the dorsal columns of the spinal cord subserving positional sense in the legs in untreated syphilis)
   • c. 117 CE, Tacitus, Annales 1.53:

     Imperium adeptus, extorrem, īnfāmem et, post interfectum Postūmum Agrippam, omnis spēī egēnam, inopiā ac tābe longā perēmit, obscūram fore necem longinquitāte exiliī ratus.

     Having obtained the power, [​Tiberius​] cut off [​Julia the Elder​], banished, notorious and, after the death of Postumus Agrippa, destitute of all hope, by poverty and long wasting away, considering it an obscure removal due to the remoteness of the exile.

2. decay, putrefaction
   • c. 69 CE – 122 CE, Suetonius, De vita Caesarum 10 10.period3:

     Utque campōs, in quibus pugnātum est, adit, abhorrentīs quōsdam cadāverum tābem dētestābilī vōce cōnfirmāre ausus est, optimē olēre occīsum hostem et melius cīvem.

     And when he went to the fields where was fought, he had the audacity to, with a detestable voice, embolden some people disgusted by the putrefaction of the corpses by saying that a killed enemy smells excellent and a killed citizen even better.

3. foulness, stench
   • c. 77 CE – 79 CE, Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 8.79:

     Atquī huic tālī mōnstrō—saepe enim ēnectum concupīvēre rēgēs vidēre—mustellarum vīrus exitiō est: adeō nātūrae nihil placuit esse sine pare. Iniciunt hōs cavernīs facile cognitīs solī tābe; necant illae simul odōre moriunturque, et nātūrae pugna cōnficitur.

     But still, to this monster [the basilisk]—kings have many times desired to see it dead—the poison of weasels is its doom: indeed, nature didn't like anything to be without a match. They throw the basilisks in the burrows easily recognised by the filth of the ground; the weasels kill them with their stench and die at the same time, and the battle of nature is done.

4. (figurative) moral corruption
   • c. 100 CE – 110 CE, Tacitus, Histories 1.26:

     Īnfēcit ea tābēs legiōnum quoque et auxiliōrum mōtās iam mentīs, postquam vulgātum erat labāre Germānicī exercitūs fidem.

     That corruption also infected the now unsettled spirits of the legions and auxiliaries, now that it was common knowledge that the loyalty of the forces in Germany was tottering.

5. fluid from a wound
   • c. 45 CE – 96 CE, Statius, Thebaid 8.458–461:

     […] iamque inflexō Trītōnia patre
     vēnerat et miserō decus immortāle ferēbat,
     atque illum effrāctī perfūsum tābe cerebrī
     aspicit et vīvō scelerantem sanguine faucēs.

     […] And now, Tritonia, the father being swayed,
     came and brought immortal glory to the poor man,
     and looked at him, soaked in the issue of his spilled brain
     and defiling his jaws with live blood.

6. a fluid that results from melting or dissolving
   • c. 77 CE – 79 CE, Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 9.58:

     Ex praeceptō ministrī ūnum tantum vās ante eam posuēre acētī, cuius asperitās vīsque in tābem margarītās resolvit.

     As ordered, the servants only placed a bowl of vinegar before her, whose roughness and potency dissolves pearls into fluid.

Third-declension noun (i-stem).

• tābeō
• tābificus
• tābēscō
• tābidus
• tābificus
• tābitūdō

• Portuguese: tabe, tabes

• “tabes”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “tabes”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• tabes in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

tabes

1. dative plural of tab