Maecenas

From Middle French mecenas, and its source, Latin Maecēnās (“literary patron”), from the name of Gaius Maecenas, Roman statesman and patron of Horace and Virgil.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /mʌɪˈsiːnəs/

Maecenas (plural Maecenases)

1. A generous benefactor; specifically, a patron of literature or art.
   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, p. 329:

     The government [...] maintained one of the largest armies in Europe; it developed what became, by the 1780s, a navy as big as the British; and it played the role of cultural Maecenas.

   • 1920, 'Burton', The Anatomy of Melancholy vol. III, page 19:

     [...] thou art his dear and loving friend, good and gracious Lord and Master, his Maecenas.

• Macanese

Ultimately from Etruscan.

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /mae̯ˈkeː.naːs/

Maecēnās m (genitive Maecēnātis); third declension

1. A Roman cognomen — famously held by:
   1. Gaius Cilnius Maecenas, a Roman patron
2. (by extension) Maecenas (any person who is a generous benefactor, particularly of the arts)

Third declension.