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cothon

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word cothon

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
second half of the 1st century BC, Bellum Africum

Forms

cōthōn m (genitive cōthōnis); third declension[1][2] Servius also gives a neuter cōthōnum (genitive cōthōnī).[3][2]

Etymology

The TLL, Lewis & Short and Georges call it a Semitic word,[3][4][1] which the Greeks identified with κώθων (kṓthōn);[4][1] Köbler marks the Semitic origin with a query.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first examples in the TLL are in the Bellum Africum, of the artificial inner harbour of Hadrumetum, from which ships sailed out and in which a fleet took refuge (Hadrumetum in cothonem se universae contulerunt).[3][1]

Semantic evolution

Festus, in Paulus' abridgement, explains it as the name for inner harbours in the sea made by art and by hand.[3][4] Servius uses it of the harbour of Carthage, and notes that it is both masculine and neuter.[3][4][2] Orosius writes that Scipio, setting out to destroy Carthage, entered the Cothon.[3]

Timeline

  • second half of the 1st century BC – The Bellum Africum uses it of the harbour of Hadrumetum.[3][5]
  • second half of the 2nd century AD – Festus defines it as an artificial inner harbour.[3][5]
  • c. 400 AD – Servius uses it of the harbour of Carthage.[3][5]
  • 417/418 AD – Orosius names the Cothon of Carthage.[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An artificial inner harbour.[4][1][2][3]
  2. (as a name) The inner harbour of Carthage.[4][1][3]

Usage notes

Cōthōn was also the name of several islands, mentioned by Pliny the Elder and Pomponius Mela.[4][2][3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  2. ^ a b c d e Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry

“Cothon.” Etymologically, 21 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/cothon. Accessed 22 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·