Etymologically
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incola

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈɪŋ.kɔ.ɫa][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈiŋ.ko.la][1]

Forms

incola m or f (genitive incolae); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is formed from incolō (“to inhabit”) with the suffix -a.[2][3][1] The verb is a compound of in- (“in”) and colō (“to dwell, till”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *kʷele/o- and Proto-Indo-European *kʷelh₁- (“to go round”), cognate with Sanskrit चरति (cárati, “moves”) and Ancient Greek πέλομαι (pélomai, “to move, be”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Plautus as its first author,[5] who calls on “citizens, countrymen, inhabitants, neighbours, newcomers, all” in the Aulularia.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

It is an inhabitant of a place, masculine or feminine (Phaedrus and Prudentius have it as a feminine).[2][6] In a narrower sense it is a resident alien as opposed to a citizen, as Cicero's people of Halicyae, whose resident aliens pay tithes while the citizens' own lands are exempt.[2]

In Church Latin and medieval charters it is a dweller or resident, especially one with a domicile.[7][5]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of the inhabitants of a place.[2][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of resident aliens.[2][5]
  • c. 15 BC–c. 50 AD – Phaedrus as a feminine.[6][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An inhabitant, resident.[2][1][6]
  2. A resident alien, denizen (as opposed to a citizen).[2]
  • incolō
  • colō
  • accola
  • inquilīnus

Usage notes

Döderlein says that incolō is transitive, “to inhabit”, with reference to the country to which someone belongs, while habitō is intransitive, “to dwell”, with reference to the house.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ 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 e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper