vallum

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈwal.lũː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈval.lum]^[1]

Forms

vallum n (genitive vallī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is apparently a collective formed from vāllus (“stake”), the line of stakes set on an earthwork.^[2][3] The further origin is uncertain: Schrijver connected Ancient Greek ἧλος (hêlos, “nail”), from Proto-Italic *walso-, which de Vaan finds possible but not compelling.^[4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Cato onwards.^[4][5] Caesar has a camp fortified vallo fossaque, “with a rampart and a ditch”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It was the palisade of stakes on top of an earth bank, and then the palisaded bank itself, the rampart round a Roman camp.^[2][6] Figuratively it was any defence, as in Cicero.^[7]

Medieval writers used it for walls, ramparts and ditches of all kinds, such as the earthwork Severus built across Britain.^[8] It survives as Italian vallo, Portuguese valo and Spanish valla,^[1] and Germanic borrowed it as *wall-, the source of Old English weall and English wall.^[5]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it.^[4][5]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it for the rampart of a camp.^[3][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it figuratively for a defence.^[7][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A palisade on an earthwork.^[2][3]
2. A palisaded rampart, entrenchment.^[2][1]
3. (figurative) A defence, protection.^[7]
4. (Medieval Latin) A wall, rampart; a ditch.^[8]

Related words

• vāllus
• intervallum
• English wall
• English interval

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes agger, a single bank like a dam, from vallum, a rampart that encloses a space such as a camp.^[9] A rare vallum is also a variant of vallus “small winnowing fan”.^[2][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 c 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. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
9. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper