compitum

Forms

compitum n (genitive compitī); second declension^[1] Varro has competum.^[2][3] A masculine compitus is found in Caecilius and Varro.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin competō (“to come together, meet”), the place where roads meet.^[2][4][5] That verb is a compound of con- and petō (“to make for”), which de Vaan connects with a root meaning to fly.^[1][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cato, who has it in the singular.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

It is a place where three or more roads meet, a crossroads, mostly in the plural.^[2][3] By metonymy it is the people at the crossroads: in Horace the crowds there gave someone the nickname Mercurialis.^[2] Varro uses it figuratively of a point where one must choose a way: from the first crossroads Epicurus built the road on the right.^[2] It is also the shrine of the Lares Compitales at a crossroads, which inscriptions record being repaired.^[2] Varro has the form ⟨competum⟩, and Caecilius and Varro a masculine ⟨compitus⟩.^[2][3] Church Latin glosses it crossroads.^[7]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it in the singular.^[3][4]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of a crossroads of choice.^[2][4]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of the crowds at the crossroads.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A place where roads meet, a crossroads, road junction; the people gathered there.^[2][3][1][7]
2. Figuratively, a point where a choice must be made.^[2]
3. A shrine of the Lares Compitales at a crossroads.^[2]

Related words

• competō
• compitālis

Usage notes

Compitum Anagnīnum was a place in Latium near Anagnia, mentioned by Livy.^[5]

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 j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson