ager

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈa.ɡɛr]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈaː.d͡ʒer]^[1]

Forms

ager m (genitive agrī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *agro- (“field”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éǵros (“uncultivated field, pasture”), a derivative of *h₂eǵ- (“to drive, lead”), the root of agō.^[2][1] Varro already derived the word from agere.^[3][4]

Cognate with Umbrian ager (“field”), Sanskrit अज्र (ájra-, “plain”), Ancient Greek ἀγρός (agrós, “field”), Gothic 𐌰𐌺𐍂𐍃 (akrs) and Old English æcer, the source of English acre.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus onwards.^[2][5] In the Amphitruo Plautus uses it of the territory of the Teleboans, which the Argives promise to leave.^[6]

Semantic evolution

From the start it meant both a territory, as in ager Romanus or ager Tusculanus, and a privately owned piece of land, an estate or farm.^[6][4] Land as property gave the legal terms ager publicus and ager privatus, and land as farmed gave agri cultura “agriculture”.^[6] It also meant soil of a particular quality, and the countryside as opposed to the town.^[6] In inscriptions in agrum meant “in depth”, as of the measurements of a tomb plot.^[6]

In medieval Latin it was also a land measure and, in parts of France, a subdivision of a county.^[7] Its Romance descendants, such as Romanian agru and Italian agro, continue the senses “field” and “countryside”.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for a territory and for a farm.^[6][5]
• 234–149 BC – Cato speaks of the loss of a man's land.^[6][5]
• 116–27 BC – Varro names five kinds of ager recognised by the augurs.^[6][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero writes of the cultivation of fields.^[9][5]
• Middle Ages – It is a land measure and a district of a county.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A territory, district; the land of a community.^[6][4]
2. A piece of privately owned land, an estate, farm.^[6]
3. Land as property, ager publicus: public land.^[6]
4. Farmland, the fields, agri cultura: agriculture.^[6]
5. Soil, a kind of land.^[6]
6. The countryside, as opposed to the town.^[6]
7. in agrum: in depth (of a plot of land).^[6]
8. (Medieval Latin) A land measure; a subdivision of a county.^[7]

Word family

• agellus
• agrālis
• agrārius
• agrāticum
• agrestis
• agricultiō
• agricultor
• agricultūra
• agricola
• agrimēnsor
• agripeta
• agrosius
• peregrīnus

Related words

• agō
• English acre
• English agriculture
• English pilgrim

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
9. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn