Etymologically
Log in

collis

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 16 October 2026 at 02:20. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

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

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