Translation
necessity, need; compulsion, constraint
Examples
.
Necessity has no law.
coactus .
Compelled by necessity, he fled.
.
They did not see the necessity of war.
.
He did this out of necessity.
cogit.
No necessity compels you.
Necessitas, necessitatis is third declension feminine, one of the large family of abstract nouns in -tas, -tatis built off adjectives: from necesse comes necessitas the way veritas comes from verus and libertas from liber. They are all feminine, they all take -tatem in the accusative, and they all keep the t through the oblique cases.
The ablative does most of the work. Necessitate coactus, "driven by necessity", is a set phrase, and ex necessitate is the standard "of necessity" of scholastic argument. Watch the register: classical necessitas is often grim, the compulsion of fate or hunger, while medieval writers use it flatly for a practical need. Necessitas legem non habet, "necessity has no law", is a canon-law maxim rather than a classical tag.
Where this fits
Add to review queue
Track this word in your spaced-repetition queue and be tested on it at the right interval.
Go to my review queueLatin · Free printables
necessitas: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Latin word "necessitas" (necessity, need; compulsion, constraint): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.
Free for members
The printable worksheets, infographics and PDFs are free with an account. Start a free week and download as many as you like.
Start your free weekThis word is part of lesson 16.