colluvies

Forms

colluviēs f (genitive colluviēī); fifth declension^[1] It is also spelled ⟨conluviēs⟩.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin colluō (“to wash out, rinse”) + -iēs.^[2][1][4] De Vaan counts the compounds in ⟨-luere⟩ among the forms of lavō (“to wash”), which goes back to Proto-Italic *lowa- and Proto-Indo-European *(le-)louh3- (“to wash”).^[5] The noun colluviō has the same meaning.^[6][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found first in Cicero's letters to Atticus,^[7][2] in a passage Georges and Gaffiot ascribe to Atticus himself, of reigning in the coming chaos, in ea colluvie regnare.^[4][8]

Semantic evolution

Its literal sense is collected muck or filth, refuse and sewage:^[2][4] Seneca contrasts the purer air with the filth of the earth, Columella mentions the dung-laden refuse of the farmyard and the baths, and Pliny the Elder uses it of pigswill.^[2][9] Figuratively it was a cesspool of conditions, a confused medley or chaos,^[2][4] and a rabble of worthless people: Tacitus says that the builders of a city's walls had been swelled by a great rabble and by the ruin of other cities, and Justin has a mob of people gathered from everywhere.^[2][4]

Later it meant moral filth, as in Augustine's cesspool of the worst habits.^[4][8] British medieval glossaries use it for a gutter.^[10]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero's letters use it for political chaos.^[2][7]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of the filth of the earth.^[2][7]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of farmyard refuse.^[2][7]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of a rabble.^[2][7]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it of moral filth.^[4][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. Collected muck, filth; refuse, sewage.^[2][4]
2. Pigswill.^[2]
3. (figurative) A cesspool, confused medley, chaos.^[2][4]
4. (figurative) A rabble of worthless people.^[2][4]
5. (Medieval Latin) A gutter.^[10]

Related words

• colluviō

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 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. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
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. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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 Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
9. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press