oppidanus

Forms

oppidānus (feminine oppidāna, neuter oppidānum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin oppidum (“town”) + -ānus.^[2][1][3] For the noun oppidum de Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *op-pe/od-o- (“obstructing”), and thinks it likely, following Walde and Hofmann, that it first meant “what is in front of the feet”, a barrier, from a root meaning “foot, step”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records the adjective first in Cicero,^[5] who speaks of a provincial and unpolished style of speaking (oppidano quodam et incondito genere dicendi) and of an old man oppidanus, from a country town.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

The adjective describes a town other than Rome, often slightingly: as urbānus belonged to the capital, oppidānus meant provincial or small-town.^[6][2] Used as a noun, chiefly in the plural, it named the inhabitants of a particular town: Caesar has the townspeople who were not to suffer harm from his soldiers by night.^[2][5] Pliny the Elder uses it for town-dwellers as against rural communities.^[2]

In Medieval Latin the noun named the inhabitant of a castle or a member of its garrison, the castellan, and the inhabitant of a rural town or of a city.^[7] Ecclesiastical dictionaries give it simply as a townsperson.^[8]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses the adjective of a provincial style of speaking.^[2][5]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses the plural noun for the inhabitants of a town.^[2][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it for town-dwellers.^[2][5]
• 932 – Flodoard's annals use the noun.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a country town, provincial, local (as opposed to Rome).^[2][6]
2. Of or belonging to a particular town.^[2][1]

Noun

1. An inhabitant of a particular town, a townsman (usually in the plural).^[2][8]
2. A town-dweller, as opposed to country people.^[2]
3. (Medieval Latin) An inhabitant of a castle, a member of its garrison; a castellan.^[7]
4. (Medieval Latin) An inhabitant of a rural town or of a city.^[7]

Related words

• oppidum
• urbānus

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 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 f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson