nautae

Nautae is the Latin plural form of the noun nauta, meaning sailor. In classical Latin texts it refers to professional sailors, mariners, or seafarers and is commonly encountered in descriptions of naval activity, travel, and maritime life. The term can also appear in plural address when speakers speak to groups of sailors.

Grammatically, nauta is a first-declension noun and is masculine in gender. Its nominative plural and vocative plural are nautae. In the singular, nautae also appears as the genitive singular and dative singular forms, while the nominative singular is nauta, the accusative singular nautam, and the ablative singular nauta. Consequently, the sequence nautae can be interpreted as “the sailors” (nominative plural or vocative plural) or as the singular genitive or dative (of the sailor or to/for the sailor), depending on context. The genitive plural is nautārum, the dative plural nautīs, the accusative plural nautas, and the ablative plural nautīs.

In usage, nautae appears in historical and literary Latin to reference groups of sailors, whether in military, commercial, or exploratory settings. It also serves as a helpful example of Latin noun inflection for learners studying first-declension masculine nouns with overlapping case forms. In modern contexts, the term is primarily encountered in academic, literary, or translated texts that discuss ancient Roman maritime life.