Lewis & Short

aestas, ātis, f. [akin to αἴθω = to burn, Varr. L. L. 6, § 9; cf.: aestus, aether, aethra; Sanscr. indh = to kindle, iddhas = kindled; O. H. Germ. eiten = to heat; Germ. Hitze = heat], in an extended sense,

  1. I. the summer season, as one half of the year, from March twenty-second to September twenty-second (the other half was hiems, the winter season); cf. Dig. 43, 19: aestas et hiems, nox et dies, Vulg. Gen. 8, 22: in a restricted sense, the summer, the three months from the entrance of the sun into Cancer to the autumnal equinox (the entrance into Libra): Arabes campos et montes hieme et aestate peragrantes, Cic. Div. 1, 42: (formica) parat in aestate cibum sibi, Vulg. Prov. 6, 8: aestate ineunte, at the beginning of summer, Cic. Att. 4, 2: nova, Verg. A. 1, 430: media, midsummer, Cic. Imp. Pomp. 12, 35: jam adulta, Tac. A. 2, 23; so Aur. Vict. Caes. 32, 3 Arntz.: summa, the height of summer, Cic. Verr. 2, 5, 31: exacta, Sall. J. 65: finita, Vulg. Jer. 8, 20: cum affecta jam prope aestate uvas a sole mitescere tempus est, Cic. Oecon. ap. Non. 161, 2.
    With anni, summer-time, Gell. 2, 21: aestate anni flagrantissima, id. 19, 5.
    Since war among the ancients was carried on only in summer, aestas is sometimes (like θέρος in Gr.) used by the histt. for,
  2. II. A year, Vell. 2, 47; 82: quae duabus aestatibus gesta, Tac. A. 6, 39; so. te jam septuma portat omnibus errantem terris aestas, Verg. A. 1, 756.
    1. B. Summer air: per aestatem liquidam, Verg. G. 4, 59; id. A. 6, 707.
    2. C. Summer heat: ignea, Hor. C. 1, 17, 3.
    3. * D. Freckles as caused by heat: aestates, Plin. 28, 12, 50, § 185, where Jan. reads testas.