situs

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈsɪ.tʊs], [ˈsɪ.tuːs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈsiː.tus], [ˈsiː.tus]^[1]

Forms

situs m (genitive sitūs); fourth declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin sinō (“to place, let”) + -tus, an action noun from the verb whose participle situs means “placed, situated”.^[2][1][3][4] The verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *tḱey- (“to settle, dwell”).^[1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates the noun from Cicero,^[6] who speaks of the position of the things we look at and of Messana adorned by its site, its walls and its harbour.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It meant the position of a thing in relation to its surroundings, the situation of a town or camp, the particular site of a bone in Celsus, and, by extension, a structure, as in Horace's “the royal pile of the pyramids”.^[2][3] In Pliny it meant the layout of a region and hence a region or quarter of the world itself.^[2][1] Late Latin used it for a description, and Augustine and Martianus Capella for the philosophical category of position.^[1][7]

Medieval Latin used it for the site of a building, a watermill or a salt-boiler, for the meeting place of a court and for a subdivision of the pagus.^[8][6] It survives as Italian sito, Spanish sitio, Portuguese sítio and French site,^[1] and English site came through Anglo-French in the late 14th century, while situs and in situ (1740) are used in technical writing.^[5]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of position and of the site of a town.^[2][6]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of the sites of towns and camps.^[3][4]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of the pile of the pyramids.^[2][6]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of the position of a bone.^[2][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of a region.^[2][6]
• 775 – A charter has a medieval sense.^[6]
• late 14th century – English Site is borrowed into English.^[5]
• 1740 – In situ is used in English.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The position of a thing; the situation or site of a town, camp or building.^[2][3]
2. A structure, a pile.^[2]
3. The layout of a region; a region, a quarter of the world.^[2][1]
4. (Late Latin) A description, and in philosophy the category of position.^[1][7]
5. (Medieval Latin) The site of a building or mill; the meeting place of a court; a subdivision of the pagus.^[8][6]

Word family

• situō

Related words

• sitis
• sinō
• English site
• English situation
• English situate

Usage notes

A second noun situs, also of the fourth declension, means neglect or disuse, and the mould, rust or dust that result from it, as in Plautus' “I rot with idleness”; the OLD and de Vaan treat it separately, deriving it from Proto-Indo-European *dʰgʷʰi-tu- (“destruction, perishing”), the root of sitis, while Köbler leaves open a derivation from sinere.^[2][9][6] The participle situs “laid, buried” appears in the epitaph formula hic situs est.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill