alia

Forms

aliā (adverb, not comparable)^[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin alius (“other”), the feminine ablative used as an adverb with ⟨viā⟩ “way” understood.^[1][2][3] De Vaan derives the pronoun from Proto-Italic *aljo- (“another”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-io- (“another”).^[4] Cognate with Oscan allo, Umbrian arsir, Ancient Greek ἄλλος (állos), and Old Irish aile.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it first in Plautus,^[5] who in the prologue of the Rudens has is nos per gentis alios alia disparat, “he scatters us through the nations, some one way, some another”.^[1][6]

Semantic evolution

It means by another route or a different way, as in Plautus' Miles gloriosus and in Livy, who writes non alia quam per Thraciam, “by no other way than through Thrace”.^[2][6] With a form of alius it expresses distribution, “some by one way, others by another”: Livy has alii alia in civitates suas dilapsi sunt, “they slipped away to their own cities, each by a different road”.^[1][6] Repeated, aliā … aliā means in one direction … in the other, as in Pliny the Younger's description of a sun room facing the terrace on one side and the sea on the other.^[1][6] Georges also cites the jurist Pomponius and Florus.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses alii alia, some one way, others another.^[1][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of a route and of people dispersing.^[1][2][5]
• c. 120 AD – Florus has aliā … aliā.^[2][5]

Meanings

Adverb

1. By another route, by a different way.^[1][2]
2. aliā … aliā: in one direction … in the other.^[1][6]
3. With a form of alius: some by one way, others by another.^[1][2]

Related words

• alius
• aliās
• aliter
• alibī

Usage notes

Georges also lists a noun ālia, a spelling of ālea “dice game”, and Ālia, the river Allia.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier