Latin

Alternative forms

• optumus

Adjective

optimus ‎(superlative of bonus)

1. best; very good

   Hic mundus perfectissimus est etiam mundorum possibilium omnium optimus

   • This most perfect world is even the best of all possible worlds (Immanuel Kant, echoing Leibniz).

Inflection

First/second declension.

Antonyms

• pessimus

Derived terms

• optimas
• optimē

Descendants

• English: optimal, optimism, optimist, optimistic, optimum
• Catalan: òptim
• Italian: ottimo
• Portuguese: ótimo
• Romanian: optim
• Spanish: óptimo

Related terms

• bonus
• melior
• opto
• optio

References

• bonus in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “optimus”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.
• Meissner, Carl; Auden, Henry William (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to wish prosperity to an undertaking: aliquid optimis ominibus prosequi (vid. sect. VI. 11., note Prosequi...)
    
  • an ideal: species optima or eximia, specimen, also simply species, forma
    
  • Plato's ideal republic: civitas optima, perfecta Platonis
    
  • the sciences; the fine arts: optima studia, bonae, optimae, liberales, ingenuae artes, disciplinae
    
  • to be interested in, have a taste for culture: optimarum artium studio incensum esse
    
  • to have received a liberal education: optimis studiis or artibus, optimarum artium studiis eruditum esse
    
  • at the time of a most satisfactory government: optima re publica
    
  • the aristocracy (as a party in politics): boni cives, optimi, optimates, also simply boni (opp. improbi); illi, qui optimatium causam agunt
    
  • with full right: optimo iure
    
  • to have a good case: causam optimam habere (Lig. 4. 10)
    
  • legitimately; with the fullest right: optimo iure (cf. summo iure, sect. XV. 1).
    
  • (ambiguous) to deserve well at some one's hands; to do a service to..: bene, praeclare (melius, optime) mereri de aliquo
    
  • (ambiguous) my dear father: pater optime or carissime, mi pater (vid. sect. XII. 10)
    
  • (ambiguous) to hope well of a person: bene, optime (meliora) sperare de aliquo (Nep. Milt. 1. 1)
    
  • (ambiguous) to have the good of the state at heart: bene, optime sentire de re publica
    
• optimum in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911