oportet
Latin
Etymology
For *opvortet, from Proto-Indo-European *wortéyeti, causative stem (2nd conjugation) of the root of vertō (“to turn”) (3rd conjugation). Some refer the op- to ob-, some to opus, with which compare the similar expressions opus est and operam dare.
See also ligō, vinciō for other examples of words meaning to bind or turn, having derivatives with the sense of obliging.
Pronunciation
- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [ɔˈpɔr.tɛt]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [oˈpɔr.t̪et̪]
Verb
oportet (present infinitive oportēre, perfect active oportuit); second conjugation, impersonal, no passive, no supine stem
- (with accusative) to be necessary, proper, becoming; to behoove, one should or ought to
- mulier, quam nōs amāre oportet
- woman, whom we should love / woman, who should love us
- mulier, quam ā nōs amārī oportet
- woman, whom we should love
- mulier, ā quā nōs amārī oportet
- woman, who should love us
- oportet nōs patriam amāre
- it behooves us to love our country.
- nōn tē oportēbat illī argentum reddere
- you ought not to have paid him the money.
- 166 BCE, Publius Terentius Afer, Andria 238–239:
- Uxōrem dēcrērat dare sēsē mī hodiē: nōnne oportuit / praescīsse mē ante? Nōnne priū’ commūnicātum oportuit?
- He himself has decided to give me a wife today: ought I not to have known beforehand? Shouldn’t it have been communicated sooner?
- Uxōrem dēcrērat dare sēsē mī hodiē: nōnne oportuit / praescīsse mē ante? Nōnne priū’ commūnicātum oportuit?
- c. 65 CE, Seneca the Younger, Epistulae morales ad Lucilium 48.2:
- Alteri vivas oportet, si vis tibi vivere.
- You must live for others if you wish to live for yourself.
- Alteri vivas oportet, si vis tibi vivere.
Conjugation
| indicative | singular | plural | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||||||||
| active | present | — | — | oportet | — | — | — | ||||||
| imperfect | — | — | oportēbat | — | — | — | |||||||
| future | — | — | oportēbit | — | — | — | |||||||
| perfect | — | — | oportuit | — | — | — | |||||||
| pluperfect | — | — | oportuerat | — | — | — | |||||||
| future perfect | — | — | oportuerit | — | — | — | |||||||
| subjunctive | singular | plural | |||||||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||||||||
| active | present | — | — | oporteat | — | — | — | ||||||
| imperfect | — | — | oportēret | — | — | — | |||||||
| perfect | — | — | oportuerit | — | — | — | |||||||
| pluperfect | — | — | oportuisset | — | — | — | |||||||
| imperative | singular | plural | |||||||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||||||||
| active | future | — | — | oportētō | — | — | — | ||||||
| non-finite forms | infinitive | participle | |||||||||||
| active | passive | active | passive | ||||||||||
| present | oportēre | — | oportēns | — | |||||||||
| perfect | oportuisse | — | — | — | |||||||||
| verbal nouns | gerund | supine | |||||||||||
| genitive | dative | accusative | ablative | accusative | ablative | ||||||||
| oportendī | oportendō | oportendum | oportendō | — | — | ||||||||
Synonyms
Derived terms
Descendants
- Ido: oportar
References
- “oportet”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “oportet”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- oportet in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- Julius Pokorny, Indogermanisches Etymologisches Woerterbuch, radical *epi