confinis
Pronunciation
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
- Having a common boundary, adjacent, neighbouring, contiguous.[3][2][7]
- Closely connected, akin, allied; of persons, closely attached.[3][2]
Noun
- A neighbour whose land adjoins one's own.[3][2][8]
- (Medieval Latin, plural) An adjoining territory, the borders.[8][9]
Word family
- confinalis
Related words
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
- ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ 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
- ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
- ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
- ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
- ^ 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
- ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper