agrestis

Latin > English (Lewis & Short)

ā̆grestis: e, adj. id..
I Lit., pertaining to land, fields, or the country, country, rural, rustic, wild, ἄγριος: Musa, Lucr. 5, 1397: te in Arpinati videbimus et hospitio agresti accipiemus, Cic. Att. 2, 16 fin.: vestitus, Nep. Pel. 2, 5: falx, Tib. 2, 5, 28 al.: poma, Verg. A. 7, 111: cum lactucis agrestibus, Vulg. Exod. 12, 8: ligna non sunt pomifera, sed agrestia, ib. Deut. 20, 20: herbas agrestes, ib. 4 Reg. 4, 39.—Subst.: ā̆gre-stis, is (gen. plur. agrestūm, Ov. M. 14, 635), a countryman, rustic, farmer, peasant, Lucr. 5, 1382: non est haec oratio habenda aut cum imperitā multitudine aut in aliquo conventu agrestium, Cic. Mur. 29: collectos armat agrestes, Verg. A. 9, 11: Fictilia antiquus primum sibi fecit agrestis Pocula, Tib. 1, 1, 39: facinus admissum a quodam agresti, Tac. A. 4, 45: inopes agrestes, id. H. 2, 13; 4, 50.—
II Transf., and in mal. part.
   A Rustic, in opp. to the refined citizen (urbanus, as ἄγριος is opp. to ἀστεῖος), boorish, clownish, rude, uncultivated, coarse, wild, savage, barbarous, of persons and things: sunt quidam vultu motuque corporis vasti atque agrestes, Cic. de Or. 1, 25, 115: O rem dignam, in quā non modo docti, verum etiam agrestes erubescant, id. Leg. 1, 14, 41: aborigines, genus hominum agreste, Sall. C. 6, 1: Ego ille agrestis, saevos, tristis, parcus, truculentus, tenax Duxi uxorem, Ter. Ad. 5, 4, 12: quis nostrūm tam animo agresti ac duro fuit, ut, etc., Cic. Arch. 8: dominus agrestis et furiosus, id. Sen. 14: exculto animo nihil agreste, nihil inhumanum est, id. Att. 13, 45; so Ov. M. 11, 767: rustica vox et agrestis, Cic. de Or. 2, 11; 2, 3. —Hence, agrestiores Musae, ruder, of the language of the bar, in opp. to more refined and polished eloquence, Cic. Or. 3, 11.—
   B Wild, brutish: vultus, Ov. M. 9, 96: agrestem detraxit ab ore figuram Juppiter (of Io), Prop. 3, 31, 13.—Comp., v. above.— * Sup. agrestissimus, Cassiod. Ep. 7, 4.— * Adv. comp. neutr. agrestius, Spart. Hadr. 3.