triennium

Forms

triennium n (genitive trienniī or triennī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed like triennis (“three years old”) with the suffix -ium, from tri- (“three”) and annus (“year”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan derives ⟨annus⟩ from Proto-Italic *atno- (“year”), perhaps Proto-Indo-European *h₂et-no- (“which goes”), from a root “to go, wander”, the year being a “going around”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus is its first author,^[3] who has triennio post … adveniō domum, “three years later I come home”, in the Mostellaria.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is a period of three years, and trienniō ante and trienniō post are three years before and after, as in Plautus and Cicero.^[2][5] Church Latin glosses it “space of three years”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus has trienniō post.^[2][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero has biennium aut triennium.^[5][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A period of three years;^[2][5][6] trienniō post, three years later.^[2][5][6]

Word family

• triennālis

Related words

• biennium
• annus
• triennis
• English triennium

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson