equitatus

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ɛ.kʷɪˈtaː.tʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [e.kʷiˈtaː.tus]

From equitō (“to ride”) + -tus (noun-forming suffix).

equitātus m (genitive equitātūs); fourth declension

1. cavalry
   • c. 52 BCE, Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico 1.42:

     Caesar, quod neque conloquium interposita causa tolli volebat neque salutem suam Gallorum equitatui committere audebat, commodissimum esse statuit omnibus equis Gallis equitibus detractis eo legionarios milites legionis X., cui quam maxime confidebat, imponere, ut praesidium quam amicissimum, si quid opus facto esset, haberet.

     Caesar, as he didn't want either the interview to be for any reason set aside or confide his wellbeing in the hands of the Gallic cavalry, said he saw as most fit the Gallic horsemen be stripped off their steeds and in their place mount legionaries of the 10th legion, in which he had the utmost faith, that he might have as trusted a body-guard as one could have if the occasion ever urged its use.

2. an instance of riding
3. (rare) the order of equestrians

Fourth-declension noun.

• (riding): equitātiō

Apparently from equiō, equīre (“to be on heat”) via an unused frequentative *equitō +‎ -tus (noun-forming suffix).^[1]

equitātus m (genitive equitātūs); fourth declension

1. (of mares) a being in heat
   • c. 165 BCE – 103 BCE, Gaius Lucilius, Saturae (fragments) 1275:

     quantum hinnitum atque equitatum

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 116 BCE – 27 BCE, Marcus Terentius Varro, De Lingua Latina 7.104:

     Lucilii: 'haec inquam rudet ex rostris atque hei<u>litabit.' eiusdem: 'quantum hinnitum atque equitatum.'

     • 1938 translation by Roland G. Kent

       Lucilius's
       This, I say, he'll bray from the stand and lament
       to the public.
       The same poet's
       How much neighing and prancing like horses.

Fourth-declension noun.

• “equitatus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “equitatus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "equitatus", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “equitatus”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to have the advantage in cavalry: equitatu superiorem esse
    
  • the cavalry covers the retreat: equitatus tutum receptum dat
    
• “equitātus” in volume 5, part 3, column 728, line 55 in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL Open Access), Berlin (formerly Leipzig): De Gruyter (formerly Teubner), 1900–present