Etymologically
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vallum

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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]
  • 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