collinus

Forms

collīnus (feminine collīna, neuter collīnum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin collis (“hill”) + -īnus.^[2][3][4][1] The noun goes back to Proto-Italic *kolni- and Proto-Indo-European *kolH-n- (“hill”), from the root *klH- (“to lift”).^[4]

De Vaan compares Ancient Greek κολώνη (kolṓnē, “hill”), Lithuanian kálnas (“hill”) and Old English hyll (“hill”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Varro on.^[4][5] In his work on farming he sets the hill type of land against the flat and the mountainous, and says that hill vineyards are thought the better.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

Writers on farming and medicine used it of what grows or lies on hills: Columella of hill wines and of water from hill springs, and Celsus, who finds hill wheat stronger than that of the plain.^[3][6] Rufinus writes of scouts making for the hilltops, and the land surveyors use it for public lands on hills.^[3]

At Rome it named the district of the Quirinal and Viminal hills:^[6][2] Varro speaks of the regiō Collīna and the tribus Collīna, one of the city tribes, which Cicero also names.^[6][7] The porta Collīna, the Colline gate near the Quirinal, appears in Cicero, Livy and Ovid,^[2][6] and there were also a Colline tower and Colline Salii.^[3][2] The TLL leaves open whether Propertius' “Colline herbs” grew near the gate or simply on hills.^[3] Collīnus was also a Roman surname.^[3]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of hill land and hill vineyards.^[3][6][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero names the Colline gate and the Colline tribe.^[2][6][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy mentions the Colline gate.^[2][6][5]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus calls hill wheat stronger than that of the plain.^[3][5]
• 1st century AD – Columella writes of hill wines.^[3][6][5]
• c. 345–411/412 AD – Rufinus writes of hilltops sought by scouts.^[3][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or belonging to hills; growing or found on hills.^[2][6][3][1]
2. (Collīnus) Of the Quirinal and Viminal district of Rome;^[2][6][7] porta Collīna, the Colline gate;^[2][6][7] tribus Collīna, the Colline tribe.^[2][6][7]

Word family

• collīna

Related words

• collis

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.