confinis

Forms

cōnfīnis (neuter cōnfīne); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1] A variant cōnfīnius occurs in some manuscripts of the Rhetorica ad Herennium and in a scholiast on Juvenal.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin con- (“together, with”) + fīnis (“boundary”).^[3][1][4] De Vaan calls the etymology of fīnis disputed: Walde and Hofmann reconstruct ⟨*fīg-s-ni-⟩ “driven in”, of a boundary post, and it might also belong to Proto-Indo-European *bʰiH- (“to strike”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan records it first in Varro,^[5] who writes of confines fundi, neighbouring farms.^[3][2] Köbler dates it from Caesar,^[6] who says confines erant hi Senonibus, “these bordered on the Senones”.^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short note that it is classical in prose and poetry but not used by Cicero.^[2] It means having a common boundary, used absolutely or with a dative, as in Caesar, Livy and Nepos, and Ovid uses it of the place where the head meets the neck.^[3][2] As a noun confinis is a neighbour whose land adjoins one's own, in Gaius and Martial, and the neuter confine a boundary or border in Lucan and Valerius Flaccus.^[3][2] Figuratively it means closely related or akin: Ovid has poems studio confinia vestro, and Seneca says some vices border on virtues, sunt virtutibus vitia confinia;^[3][2] Lewis and Short find this use especially frequent in Quintilian.^[3][2] In medieval Latin a confinis is a neighbour holding adjacent land and confines an adjoining territory,^[8] and British writers use the plural of neighbours and of borders, such as the marches of Scotland and England.^[9] It survives in Italian confine.^[7]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of neighbouring farms.^[3][5][6]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it with a dative of peoples whose lands adjoin.^[3][6]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it in the sense “akin”.^[3][6]
• 140–180 AD – Gaius uses it as a noun for a neighbouring owner.^[3][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having a common boundary, adjacent, neighbouring, contiguous.^[3][2][7]
2. Closely connected, akin, allied; of persons, closely attached.^[3][2]

Noun

1. A neighbour whose land adjoins one's own.^[3][2][8]
2. (Medieval Latin, plural) An adjoining territory, the borders.^[8][9]

Word family

• confinalis

Related words

• fīnis
• cōnfīnium
• affīnis
• English confine

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes three words for neighbours: vīcīnī are neighbours by house and yard, fīnitimī those who live near the borders of others, in a purely geographical sense, and cōnfīnēs those who share a common boundary, with a suggestion of the friendship of neighbours.^[10]

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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper