Etymologically
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campestris

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 03:34. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kamˈpɛs.trɪs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [kamˈpɛs.tris][1]

Forms

campestris (neuter campestre); third-declension two-termination adjective[1] The masculine nominative is campestris in Cato and Columella and campester in Varro.[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin campus (“plain, field”) + -ester.[2][3] De Vaan traces campus to Proto-Italic *kampo- (“field”); he finds its ⟨ca-⟩ hard to explain and thinks it could be a European substrate word of farming.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the OLD's earliest quotation Cato says that the land of the Aborigines was mostly level.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

It is flat, level, and then of the plains: Horace has the Scythians of the plains, Caesar a route over open country and fortifications on the plain.[2] Columella uses it of field varieties of plants.[2] It is also of the Campus Martius at Rome, as a place of exercise in Cicero and of elections: Cicero speaks of a very profitable electoral trade.[2] Inscriptions use it as a title of country gods, especially in Gaul, as Mars Campestris.[2] In New Latin it is a common specific epithet of plants and animals.[1]

Timeline

  • 234–149 BC – Cato of level land.[2][3]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of exercise in the Campus Martius.[2][3]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar of routes over the plain.[2][3]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace of the Scythians of the plains.[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Flat, level.[2][5][1]
  2. Living on, lying on or crossing a plain.[2][5]
  3. Of plants, growing in fields.[2]
  4. Of the Campus Martius: of exercise there; electoral.[2][5]
  5. As a title of country gods.[2]
  6. (New Latin) Used as a specific epithet.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press