colluvio

Forms

colluviō f (genitive colluviōnis); third declension^[1] It is also spelled conluviō.^[2][3] The fifth-declension colluvies has the same meaning.^[3]

Etymology

It is from Latin colluō (“to wash out, rinse”) + -iō,^[2][1][4] and colluō is a compound of con- and lavō (“to wash”).^[1] Its first meaning was what is washed together.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero has it first,^[5] for a jumble or vile medley: in the speech for Sestius he calls a man born out of the cesspool of every crime.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Its classical uses were figurative: a mixed mass or welter, an impure mixture (Livy's colluvio gentium, a mingling of peoples), and a state of turmoil, as in Cicero's “turmoil of Drusus”.^[2][3][6] Livy and Suetonius use it of the mixed rabble of exiles or of foreign and slave blood.^[3]

The literal sense, collected filth, appears in late writers: Arnobius speaks of the dregs of bilge water and Cassian of impure fluids.^[4] Jerome uses it of the filth of public prostitution, and Lactantius of contamination.^[4][6]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a welter of crimes and of political turmoil.^[2][3][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy speaks of a mixture of peoples.^[2][3][5]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses it of foreign and servile blood.^[3][5]
• 297–310 AD – Arnobius uses the plural of bilge water.^[4][5]
• c. 360–c. 435 AD – Cassian uses it of impure fluids.^[4][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A heterogeneous mass, jumble, welter.^[2][3]
2. Contamination, an impure mixture.^[2][3]
3. A disordered state of affairs, turmoil.^[2][6]
4. (Late Latin) Collected filth, dregs.^[4][3]

Related words

• colluviēs

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 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier