Vate

Vate (del latín vates),^[1] en la sociedad celta^[2] protohistórica, era el miembro de uno de los rangos de la clase sacerdotal, siendo los otros ocupados por los druidas y los bardos.^[3] El vate se ocupaba del culto, de la adivinación y de la medicina; y en ocasiones realizaba los sacrificios (incluyendo sacrificios humanos) bajo la dirección de los druidas. Aunque solían ser varones, algunas mujeres (como las gallisenae^[4] de Île-de-Sein) también ejercían esas funciones.

En la Roma antigua, donde alguna de estas funciones eran desempeñadas por el augur (de origen etrusco), había también "vates", que residían en la colina Vaticana (Vaticanus Mons, vaticiniis ferendis, "colina de los vates", donde se hacían los "vaticinios" -aunque hay otras posibles etimologías-).^[5]

En castellano, "vate" se usa como sinónimo de "poeta". el sustantivo "vaticinio" (del latín vaticinium) y el verbo "vaticinar" (del latín vaticinari) son de la misma familia.

↑ Real Academia Española. «vate». Diccionario de la lengua española (23.ª edición). . El Online Etymology Dictionary, en inglés, recoge: «vates (n.) 1620s, "poet or bard," specifically "Celtic divinely inspired poet" (1728), from Latin vates "sooth-sayer, prophet, seer," from a Celtic source akin to Old Irish faith "poet," Welsh gwawd "poem," from PIE root *wet- (1) "to blow; inspire, spiritually arouse" (cognates: Old English wod "mad, frenzied," god-name Woden; see wood (adj.)). Hence vaticination "oracular prediction" (c. 1600). / ovate (n.) 1723, from assumed Latin plural Ovates, from Greek Ouateis "soothsayers, prophets," mentioned by Strabo as a third order in the Gaulish hierarchy, from Proto-Celtic *vateis, plural of *vatis, cognate with Latin vatis, Old Irish faith, Welsh ofydd. The modern word, and the artificial senses attached to it, are from the 18c. Celtic revival and the word appears first in Henry Rowlands.»
↑ société celtique
↑ fr:Barde (druidisme)
↑ Gallisenae
↑ Sources: Compendious Description of the Museums of Ancient Sculpture, Greek and Roman, in the Vatican Palace, by Cav. H. J. Massi, First Curator of the Vatican Museums and Galleries, Paleographer and Professor of the Italian and French Languages, Rome, Third Edition, 1889, Title page, page 7.

[1] Real Academia Española. «vate». Diccionario de la lengua española (23.ª edición). . El Online Etymology Dictionary, en inglés, recoge: «vates (n.) 1620s, "poet or bard," specifically "Celtic divinely inspired poet" (1728), from Latin vates "sooth-sayer, prophet, seer," from a Celtic source akin to Old Irish faith "poet," Welsh gwawd "poem," from PIE root *wet- (1) "to blow; inspire, spiritually arouse" (cognates: Old English wod "mad, frenzied," god-name Woden; see wood (adj.)). Hence vaticination "oracular prediction" (c. 1600). / ovate (n.) 1723, from assumed Latin plural Ovates, from Greek Ouateis "soothsayers, prophets," mentioned by Strabo as a third order in the Gaulish hierarchy, from Proto-Celtic *vateis, plural of *vatis, cognate with Latin vatis, Old Irish faith, Welsh ofydd. The modern word, and the artificial senses attached to it, are from the 18c. Celtic revival and the word appears first in Henry Rowlands.»

[2] société celtique

[3] r:Barde (druidisme)

[4] Gallisenae

[5] Sources: Compendious Description of the Museums of Ancient Sculpture, Greek and Roman, in the Vatican Palace, by Cav. H. J. Massi, First Curator of the Vatican Museums and Galleries, Paleographer and Professor of the Italian and French Languages, Rome, Third Edition, 1889, Title page, page 7.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]