Etymologically
Log in

commilito

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 19 October 2026 at 03:05. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Forms

commīlitō m (genitive commīlitōnis); third declension[1] It is also spelled conmīlitō and comīlitō.[2]

Etymology

It is formed from con- (“together”) and mīlitō (“to serve as a soldier”) with the noun suffix -ō, or from mīles (“soldier”).[3][2][1] De Vaan calls the first part of ⟨mīles⟩ unclear; it may be linked with mīlia (“thousands”), “who goes with the thousand”.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero has “this young man, who was my soldier in Cilicia and my fellow soldier in Greece”, in the speech for King Deiotarus;[3][5] Köbler also gives Cicero.[6]

Semantic evolution

It is a fellow soldier or comrade in war, most often in the historians after Augustus.[3][5][1] Julius Caesar, according to Suetonius, and later the emperors addressed their soldiers as commīlitōnēs, “comrades”, as in Tacitus.[3][5] In colloquial speech it is a mate, as in Petronius.[3]

Church Latin glosses it “fellow soldier”.[7] In Medieval Latin it is a knight of a lord's household, a fellow vassal and a fellow ministeriālis.[8]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of a fellow soldier.[3][6]
  • before 66 AD – Petronius of a dear comrade.[3][6]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus of an emperor addressing his troops.[3][6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A fellow soldier, comrade in arms;[3][5][1][7] (as an address) comrades.[3]
  2. (colloquial) A comrade, mate.[3]
  3. (Medieval Latin) A household knight; a fellow vassal.[8]

Usage notes

A rare verb commīlitō, “to fight on the same side”, is found only figuratively, in Florus' moon “fighting alongside”.[3][5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill