English

Proper noun

Dies

1. (Roman mythology) One of the Protogenoi, the Protogenos personification of day. She is the daughter of fellow Protogenoi, Nox/Nyx (Night) and Erebus (Darkness), and sister-wife of Aether. She is the Roman counterpart of Hemera.

Translations

English

Verb

dies

1. third-person singular simple present indicative form of die

Noun

dies

1. plural of die (when used in the sense of a pattern)

Anagrams

• Desi
• ides
• side

Catalan

Noun

dies

1. plural of dia

German

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -iːs

Pronoun

dies

1. Alternative form of dieses

Usage notes

In the nominative and accusative neuter, the forms dieses and dies are in general interchangeable, but there is a tendency to prefer one or the other in the following situations:

• In adjectival usage, dieses is generally preferred to dies. So dieses Haus ("this house") is more common than the also correct and synonymic dies Haus.
• In substantival usage, dieses is used to refer to a previously used neuter noun:

Unser Unternehmen sollte das Gebäude verkaufen. Wir können dieses nicht mehr gebrauchen.

Our company should sell the building. We cannot make use of it anymore.

• Dies is used to refer to a preceding context or phrase:

Unser Unternehmen sollte das Gebäude verkaufen. Dies würde uns viel Geld einbringen.

Our company should sell the building. This would earn us a lot of money.

Dies is also used to refer to something the speaker perceives with the senses (deixis):

Sieh dir dies mal an! – Have a look at this! (e.g. a newspaper article)

• The above habits are mainly true of formal speech and writing. Colloquially, the shorter dies is often preferred, but the pronouns das and es are even more common.

Latin

Etymology

Back-formed from the accusative diem (at a time when the vowel was still long), from Proto-Italic *djēm, the accusative of *djous, from Proto-Indo-European *dyḗws ‎(“heaven, sky”). Cognate with Ancient Greek Ζήν ‎(Zḗn). The Italic stem was also the source of Iovis, the genitive of Iuppiter, and was generally interchangeable with it in earlier times (still shown by the analogical formation Diēspiter). The original nominative survives as *diūs in two fossilised phrases: mē diūs fidius ‎(an interjection) and nū diūs tertius ‎(“day before yesterday”, literally “now (is) the third day”).

The d in diēs is a puzzle with some suggesting dialect borrowing and others referring to an etymon *diyew- via Lindeman's Law. But note the possible Proto-Italic allophony between -CjV- and -CiV-, which may be the cause for this divergence. See WT:AITC

Cognate with Old Armenian տիւ ‎(tiw, “daytime”), Old Irish día, Welsh dydd, Polish dzień. English day is a false cognate (see there).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈdi.eːs/

Noun

diēs m, f ‎(genitive diēī); fifth declension

1. day (any period of twenty-four hours)
   • 405 CE, Jerome, Vulgate Exodus.16.26

     sex diebus colligite in die autem septimo sabbatum est Domino idcirco non invenietur

     Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none.

2. day (part of a day period between sunrise and sunset where one enjoys daylight)
3. (often in the feminine) a set day or appointed time; date, appointment

Inflection

Diēs is an exceptional case of a fifth declension noun since it is both used in the masculine form and in the feminine form, instead of just feminine like the rest of the fifth declension nouns. The masculine use is more common, and almost invariably used for the plural. The feminine use is found in the singular when the day is being personified as a goddess, when it refers to a specific day (e.g., the date of a letter, or an appointed day for business), when it refers to the passing of time, and occasionally in other contexts.

Fifth declension.

Derived terms

Related terms

• diū
• dōnec

Descendants

References

• dies in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• dies in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• DIES in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “dies”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.
• Meissner, Carl; Auden, Henry William (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • a day's journey: iter unius diei or simply diei
    
  • to give some one a few days for reflection: paucorum dierum spatium ad deliberandum dare
    
  • in our time; in our days: his temporibus, nostra (hac) aetate, nostra memoria, his (not nostris) diebus
    
  • year by year; day by day: singulis annis, diebus
    
  • the intercalary year (month, day): annus (mensis, dies) intercalaris
    
  • when it is growing dusk; towards evening: die, caelo vesperascente
    
  • the day is already far advanced: multus dies or multa lux est
    
  • while it is still night, day: de nocte, de die
    
  • the succession of day and night: vicissitudines dierum noctiumque
    
  • night and day: noctes diesque, noctes et dies, et dies et noctes, dies noctesque, diem noctemque
    
  • from day to day: in dies (singulos)
    
  • to live from day to day: in diem vivere
    
  • every other day: alternis diebus
    
  • four successive days: quattuor dies continui
    
  • one or two days: unus et alter dies
    
  • one, two, several days had passed, intervened: dies unus, alter, plures intercesserant
    
  • to adjourn, delay: diem proferre (Att. 13. 14)
    
  • on the day after, which was September 5th: postridie qui fuit dies Non. Sept. (Nonarum Septembrium) (Att. 4. 1. 5)
    
  • to-day the 5th of September; tomorrow September the 5th: hodie qui est dies Non. Sept.; cras qui dies futurus est Non. Sept.
    
  • yesterday, to-day, tomorrow: dies hesternus, hodiernus, crastinus
    
  • to appoint a date for an interview: diem dicere colloquio
    
  • at the appointed time: ad diem constitutam
    
  • to live to see the day when..: diem videre, cum...
    
  • time will assuage his grief: dies dolorem mitigabit
    
  • to depart this life: mortem (diem supremum) obire
    
  • on one's last day: supremo vitae die
    
  • to put off from one day to another: diem ex die ducere, differre
    
  • the date: dies (fem. in this sense)
    
  • immorality is daily gaining ground: mores in dies magis labuntur (also with ad, e.g. ad mollitiem)
    
  • to keep, celebrate a festival: diem festum agere (of an individual)
    
  • to keep, celebrate a festival: diem festum celebrare (of a larger number)
    
  • to decree a public thanksgiving for fifteen days: supplicationem quindecim dierum decernere (Phil. 14. 14. 37)
    
  • to pass the whole day in discussion: dicendi mora diem extrahere, eximere, tollere
    
  • to summon some one to appear on a given day; to accuse a person: diem dicere alicui
    
  • to fix a day for the engagement: diem pugnae constituere (B. G. 3. 24)
    
• dies in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• dies in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
• Andrew L. Sihler (1995) New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, New York, Oxford, Oxford University Press

Latvian

Verb

dies

1. 3rd person singular future indicative form of diet
2. 3rd person plural future indicative form of diet

Romansch

Etymology

From Latin dorsum. Compare French dos.

Noun

dies m

1. (anatomy) back

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *dьnьsь

Adverb

dies

1. (Kajkavian) today