cohors

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈko.(ɦ)ɔrs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈkɔː.ors]^[1]

Forms

cohors f (genitive cohortis); third declension^[1] The contracted forms cors and chors are common, while Cato, Varro and Ovid have cohors for the farmyard, and the military sense is always cohors.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *kom-χorti-, a compound of com- “together” and a ti-stem Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰr-ti- (“enclosure”) from the root Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰer- (“to grasp, enclose”), the root of hortus “garden”; de Vaan suggests that the whole may be an old compound *kom-ǵʰer-, with the cognate Sanskrit हरति (hárati, “takes, brings”).^{[5][1][2][6][7]} Köbler and Pokorny analyse it the same way, and Köbler adds that the military sense is a loan translation of Greek Ancient Greek αὐλαία (aulaía).^[8][7] Lewis and Short compared Ancient Greek χορός (khorós, “dancing place”), which Pokorny also places under this root.^[3][7] Varro derived it from the cattle that “rise together” (cooriri) in a farmyard, and Isidore from coartare, “to hem in”.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus onwards.^[5][8] Cato uses it of a farmyard to be cleaned with the byre and the sheepfold, and Ennius of a contingent of Paelignian soldiers.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense was the yard enclosed by farm buildings, and cohortis aves were the poultry kept there.^[2][3] From the enclosure of a camp it came to mean an armed force from one place, then the tenth part of a legion, the cohort of some five hundred men, a similar unit of auxiliaries, and the cohors praetoria, the general's bodyguard, which Augustus made a standing force; the cohortes urbanae garrisoned Rome and the cohortes vigilum fought its fires.^[2][3] Poets used it of a ship's crew.^[2]

It also meant the retinue or staff of a provincial governor, a person's circle, and any band with a common tie, from Catullus' Maenads to Horace's cohort of fevers and Gellius' “Socratic cohort”.^[2][10] Medieval Latin added a monastic community and the duty of attending the local synod.^[11][8] The farmyard sense lived on in Vulgar Latin curtis and Old French cort, the source of English court, and in Italian corte, from which cortigiano gave French courtisane;^[8] the learned borrowings cohorte, coorte and English cohort (early 15th century) continue the military sense.^[1][6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[5][8]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of a farmyard and of a cohort.^[2][8]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it of a contingent of soldiers.^[2][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a governor's retinue and of legionary cohorts.^[2][8]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar counts eighty cohorts of Spanish auxiliaries.^[2][8]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus names the urban cohorts and the cohorts of the watch.^[2][8]
• 639–642 – Jonas of Bobbio has the medieval sense.^[8]
• early 15th century – English Cohort is borrowed into English.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A farmyard, an enclosure, as in cohortis aves, poultry.^[2][3]
2. An armed force, a contingent, and in poetry a ship's crew.^[2]
3. A cohort, the tenth part of a legion; a unit of auxiliaries.^[2][3]
4. Cohors praetoria, a general's or emperor's bodyguard; the urban cohorts; the cohorts of the watch.^[2]
5. The retinue or staff of a governor; a person's circle.^[2]
6. Any band or company with a common tie.^[2][10]
7. (Medieval Latin) A monastic community; attendance at a local synod.^[11][8]

Word family

• cohortālis
• cohorticula
• cortīna

Related words

• hortus
• English court
• English cohort
• English curtain

Usage notes

Döderlein sets cohors, a multitude under a commander, beside caterva, a limited whole, and agmen, a procession, as against turba and grex, crowds without order.^[12] The family is uncertain: de Vaan allows that cohors may have been built on hortus within Latin rather than inherited as a separate ti-stem.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 q r Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
9. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
10. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
11. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
12. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper