confinium

Forms

cōnfīnium n (genitive cōnfīniī or cōnfīnī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin cōnfīnis (“bordering, adjoining”) + -ium.^[2][1][3] cōnfīnis is formed from fīnis (“boundary, end”), whose etymology de Vaan calls disputed: Walde and Hofmann reconstruct ⟨*fīg-s-ni-⟩ “driven in”, of a boundary stone or post, and de Vaan also considers a root Proto-Indo-European *bʰiH- (“to strike”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan finds it first in Plautus,^[4] who uses the plural in the Poenulus of the limits of a plot that will be marked out.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its central sense is a common boundary between lands, or the strip that forms it: Varro has trees that grow on the boundary and creep into both fields.^[2][5] From this it is any border or limit between things, as Ovid's meeting point of the three parts of the world, and the point dividing one time from another, as his border of doubtful night.^[2] Velleius Paterculus uses it of a state between two conditions, how narrow the line between safety and ruin had been, and Statius of the nearness of death.^[2] Lewis & Short note that it is commonest after the Augustan period and perhaps found only once in Cicero.^[5] In Medieval Latin it is a boundary, a frontier region, a territory or township, and waste land forming part of a demesne.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of the limits of a plot.^[2][4][3]
• 116–27 BC – Varro, of the boundary between fields.^[2][5][3]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid, of limits in space and time.^[2][3]
• c. 20 BC–30 AD – Velleius Paterculus, of the line between safety and ruin.^[2][3]
• Medieval Latin – A frontier area, territory, township.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A common boundary between territories; the area forming such a boundary.^[2][5][1]
2. Any limit or border dividing one thing from another;^[2][1] (plural) limits, confines.^[2][1]
3. A limit separating one period of time from another.^[2]
4. (figurative) An intermediate state, a borderline.^[2]
5. Nearness, proximity.^[2]
6. (Medieval Latin) A frontier region; a territory; a township.^[6]

Related words

• cōnfīnius
• fīnis
• cōnfīnis
• affīnis
• English confine

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 n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill