collis

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈkɔl.lɪs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈkɔl.lis]^[1]

Forms

collis m (genitive collis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *kolni-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *kolH-n- (“hill”), from the root *kelH- “to rise”, as in excellō.^[2][1] Cognate with Ancient Greek κολώνη (kolṓnē, “hill”), Lithuanian kálnas (“mountain”) and Old English hyll (English hill).^[2][3][4] The TLL also compares columen and culmen.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cato, and de Vaan from Pacuvius, who speaks of hills echoing with shouts.^[6][2][3] Köbler dates Cato 234–149 BC.^[6]

Semantic evolution

It was a hill, hillock or hilltop, and poets called Rome septem collēs “the seven hills”; in Rome the Collis was the Quirinal.^[3][7] Pliny uses it of a mound raised by tree roots.^[3] Döderlein contrasts collis, a hill rising from the plain, with clīvus, a slope.^[8]

It survives in Italian colle, French col (“mountain pass”) and Spanish collado.^[1]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it.^[6]
• 220–130 BC – Pacuvius speaks of hills echoing with shouts.^[3][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero speaks of very green hills.^[7][6]
• 65–8 BC – Horace addresses the gods who love the seven hills.^[3][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A hill, hillock, hilltop, septem collēs, Rome.^[3]
2. A mound, hummock.^[3]

Word family

• collicellus
• colliculus
• collīnus

Related words

• columen
• English hill

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper