latifundium

Pronunciation

• Classical: [ɫaː.tɪˈfʊn.di.ũː]^[1]
• Ecclesiastical: [la.tiˈfun.di.um]^[1]

Forms

lātifundium n (genitive lātifundiī or lātifundī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is a compound of lātus (“broad, wide”) and fundus (“farm, estate”) with the suffix ⟨-ium⟩.^[2][1][3] The adjective lātus goes back to Proto-Italic *slāto-,^[4] and fundus to Proto-Italic *fundo- and Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰ-n-ó- (“bottom”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Valerius Maximus,^[5][3] who says that the great estates of Cincinnatus amounted to seven iūgera.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short note that it is not found before Augustus.^[6] The word names a very large landed estate: Seneca the Younger mocks the rich who have hemmed in the seas with their estates, and Petronius has a character told that he owns latifundia.^[3][6] Pliny the Elder uses it often, and states that “latifundia have ruined Italy, and now the provinces too”.^[3][6] Florus speaks of a province held almost entirely by the estates of Roman citizens.^[3]

From the 3rd century Solinus extends it to vast regions, such as the land between Egypt, Ethiopia and Libya.^[3] In Ecclesiastical Latin it is glossed as landed property, a large estate or farm.^[7] English borrowed it as latifundium.^[1]

Timeline

• 1st century AD – Valerius Maximus uses it of the estates of Cincinnatus.^[3][5]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca the Younger writes of the estates of the rich.^[3][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder says that latifundia have ruined Italy.^[3][5]
• 1st half of the 3rd century AD – Solinus uses it of a vast region.^[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A large landed estate, a great farm or domain.^[2][6]
2. A vast region, a wide tract of land.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b 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