callis

Forms

callis m or f (genitive callis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[2][3] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *kaln/si- with a question mark.^[2] Walde and Hofmann posit ⟨*kalnis⟩ and reject a connection with callum (“hard skin”); de Vaan finds that connection quite plausible in meaning, a rough, trodden track.^[2] Wiktionary reports the traditional derivation from Proto-Indo-European *kel- (“to drive”), comparing celer (“swift”).^[1] The TLL suggests Irish caill (“wood”), and the OLD compares a Bulgarian word.^[4][5] Servius and Isidore derived it from callum.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Accius.^[6] De Vaan dates it from Varro, besides inscriptions.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is a rough track or path, as in a law inscription about driving cattle on tracks and public roads.^[5] In the plural it is upland pasture: Cicero tells of a quarrel among shepherds in the hill pastures.^[5] In particular the ⟨silvae callēsque⟩ were public pastures of Italy, assigned each year to a magistrate as his province, as to a quaestor in Tacitus.^[5] It is masculine, but Varro, Livy, Curtius and Ammianus make it feminine.^[3] Church Latin glosses it a footpath, narrow way, and in medieval Latin it is a road and a street.^[7][8]

Timeline

• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius uses it.^[6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of hill pastures.^[5][6]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus of the public pastures as a quaestor's province.^[5][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A rough track, path, footpath.^[5][3][1][7]
2. In the plural, upland or mountain pasture; the public pastures of Italy.^[5]
3. (Medieval Latin) A road, highway; a street.^[8]

Related words

• callum

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill