Etymologically
Log in

circumvallo

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 14:22. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kɪr.kʊmˈwaːl.loː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [t͡ʃir.kumˈval.lo][1]

Forms

circumvāllō (present infinitive circumvāllāre, perfect active circumvāllāvī, supine circumvāllātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin circum- (“around”) + vallō (“to fortify with a rampart”).[2][3][1] The verb is formed from vallum (“palisade, rampart”),[2][4] whose origin de Vaan leaves open: Schrijver's connection with Ancient Greek ἧλος (hêlos, “nail”) is possible but not compelling.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest example is figurative, in Terence (190–159 BC): so many troubles suddenly close in on a man in a blockade from which he cannot get out (tot res repente circumvallant se).[2][6][7]

Semantic evolution

In Classical prose it is a military term, to surround with siegeworks, to blockade: Cicero writes that Pompey has been shut in, Caesar that he invested a town in two days, and it is common in the historians.[2][8] More widely it means to beset or hem in, as with the consuls trapped by the Samnites at Caudium in Gellius,[2] and to surround with any barrier: a shoal of fish caught in a huge net in Manilius, a plot ringed by two furrows in Columella, an island ringed by the sea in Silius.[2] Statius splits it by tmesis.[3][2] Lactantius has paradise surrounded with fire, and Claudian Bellona surrounded by the senate.[6]

Timeline

  • 190–159 BC – Terence uses it figuratively of troubles closing in.[2][7]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of Pompey being blockaded.[2][7]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of investing towns.[2][7]
  • 1st century AD – Columella uses it of ringing a plot with furrows.[2][7]
  • c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it of the consuls hemmed in at Caudium.[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To surround with siegeworks, blockade, invest.[2][8]
  2. To beset, surround (with troops); (figurative) to hem in.[2]
  3. To surround (with a net, furrows, the sea and the like).[2][6]
  4. (reflexive, figurative) To close in as a blockade.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
  5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  7. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  8. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press