• LAST

1. s. (of a shoemaker) forma, or diminutive, formula calcei (Gr. καλόπους, καλοπόδιον) [☞ tentipellium, probably the instrument with which the shoemaker stretched the leather and put it on the last]. Stick to your last! ne sutor supra crepidam (☞ Plin., 35, 10, 36: no. 12, § 85); te memento in pelliculā, cerdo, tenere, tua (Mart., 3, 36, extr.); quiesce in propriā pelle (Hor., Sat., 1, 6, 22); quod sis, esse velis, nihilque malis (Mart., 10, 47, 12).

2. adj., ultimus (furthest on that side; opposed to to citimus, nearest on this side: in respect of time, that which comes last; e.g., ultima aestas, the last summer; then, figuratively, i. q., that which is the worst, etc., or comes last under consideration); extremus (the extreme, at the end of a line, surface, row, collection, etc.; opposed to intimus; never applied to a whole, but always to a part; e.g., extrema epistola, not “the last letter” but” the last part of a letter;” hence in respect of lime only, i. q., the last part, opposed to the beginning; e.g., extrema aestas, quite the last part, the last days of summer; opposed to the first; figuratively, i. q., extreme, most critical, most dangerous); postremus (hindmost; opposed to primus, princeps; figuratively, the worst: in respect of time it is very rare: postumus, also, in this sense is late); novissimus (youngest, latest; i. e., last that presents itself to our view: in respect of time, recent; a word wrongly rejected by Gell., 10, 21; it was used by Cic., and frequently by his contemporaries); proximus (next before or after another, in respect both of place and of time); summus, supremus (uppermost, highest; opposed to infimus; the former in respect of order, the latter in respect of time; e.g., the last book [of a treatise], liber summus; the last day, dies supremus). If only two are spoken of, posterior (opposed to prior), or superior (opposed to inferior), or hic (opposed to ille), or alter (opposed to alter). For the last time, (ad) ultimum; postremum (☞ not postremo, i. e., at last). The last page of a letter, pagina postrema epistolae; epistola extrema (☞ not pagina extrema epistolae, i. e., the last part of the page, Cic., Att., 6, 2, in. with Cic., Or., 13, 14): the last war, bellum ultimum (with which war has ceased); bellum postremum (the last of several carried on successively); bellum novissimum (the one most recently carried on): the last hope, spes ultima: the last will, suprema voluntas (generally); testamentum (the last will and testament): to lie at the last gasp, animam agere (☞ rarely, and poetically, extremum trahere spiritum): to pay the last honors to anyone, justa (☞ in Cic. never suprema) solvere alicui. AT LAST, postremo; ad extremum; denique. Vid: LASTLY.

3. v. durare; tenere (the intransitive signification of which is frequent in Latin): the rain lasted the whole night, imber continens tenuit per totam noctem: the rain lasts, imber non remittit (Vid: Liv., 40, 33): the conflagration lasted two days and a night, incendium tenuit per duos dies et noctem unam: the frost lasts, frigora se non frangunt.