Etymologically
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callis

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈkal.lɪs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈkal.lis][1]

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]
  • 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