campaneus

Forms

campāneus (feminine campānea, neuter campāneum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin campus (“plain, field”) + -āneus.^[1][2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Roman land surveyors use it of level places, in contrast to mountainous ones.^[2][5][3]

Semantic evolution

It is a word of the latest Latin, as the TLL notes.^[2] Lewis and Short treat it as the surveyors' equivalent of campestris.^[3] Used as a noun, the neuter plural and the feminine singular meant open country: Gregory of Tours has the plain of Reims.^[2][5][6] The TLL lists Italian campagna and French champagne under it.^[2]

Timeline

• Late Latin – The land surveyors contrast campānea loca with mountains.^[2][5]
• 538/539–594 AD – Gregory of Tours uses the noun for the plain around Reims.^[2][5][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (Late Latin) Of the open fields; level, flat (as opposed to mountainous).^[5][6][3][1]
2. (Late Latin, as a noun) Open, level country, a plain.^[5][6][2]

Usage notes

Also spelled campānius.^[3][5][4] For the noun use compare campānia.^[5][6]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c d Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.