masc. proper name, Latin, literally "beloved," from Greek erastos, verbal adjective of eran "to love" (see Eros).
Entries linking to erastus
Eros n.
god of love, late 14c., from Greek eros (plural erotes), "god or personification of love; (carnal) love," from eran, eramai, erasthai "to desire," which is of uncertain origin. Beekes suggests it is from Pre-Greek.
The Freudian sense of "urge to self-preservation and sexual pleasure" is from 1922. Ancient Greek distinguished four ways of love: erao "to be in love with, to desire passionately or sexually;" phileo "have affection for;" agapao "have regard for, be contented with;" and stergo, used especially of the love of parents and children or a ruler and his subjects.
Rastus
also 'Rastus, masc. proper name, short for Erastus. As a stereotypical name of an American slave or derogatory for "black man," by 1881, perhaps from its use in the stories of Joel Chandler Harris.