populus Latin · revision 2764

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=c. 450 BC, Twelve Tables|origins=itc-pro *poplo-}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA (Classical): [ˈpɔ.pʊ.ɫʊs]^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈpɔː.pu.lus]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''populus''' ''m'' (genitive populī); second declension^(Wiktionary)

+ Old forms are ''poplus'' and ''popolus'' in inscriptions and Plautus, and the Salian hymn has a nominative plural ''poploe''.^(OLD 2012)^(de Vaan 2008)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|itc-pro|*poplo-|t=army]], whose further origin is unknown.^(de Vaan 2008)^(Wiktionary) The old meaning “body of armed men” survives in the title [[magister|alt=magister populī]] and in the verb [[populor|alt=populārī]] “to ravage”, which de Vaan explains as “to have an army pass through”, and in [[xum|poplo]], the Umbrian cognate, which denotes the able-bodied citizens.^(de Vaan 2008)^(TLL) Lewis and Short, Georges and Köbler connect it with [[pleo|alt=plēre]] “to fill” and [[plebs|alt=plēbs]],^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913)^(Köbler 2010) and Wiktionary mentions the same root, [[ine-pro|*pleh₁-|t=to fill]], but de Vaan objects that a reduplicated *po-plh₁-o- would be strange in form and unclear in meaning.^(de Vaan 2008)^(Wiktionary) Watmough proposed an Etruscan source, on the strength of the town name Populonia, [[ett|pupluna]], which the OLD mentions and de Vaan and the TLL find unconvincing.^(de Vaan 2008)^(OLD 2012)^(TLL) The adjective [[publicus|alt=pūblicus]] has a long ''ū'' that cannot come from this stem.^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Köbler dates it from the Twelve Tables (c. 450 BC), de Vaan from Naevius, and it occurs in the archaic Salian hymn.^(Köbler 2010)^(de Vaan 2008) Plautus uses it of the [[m|en|people]] as a community (“he does harm to the whole people”).^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It meant a people or nation, and in Rome the whole citizen body as a sovereign power, the ''populus Romanus'', which Cicero defined as a gathering of people united by agreement on law and by common interest.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) In the formula ''populus plebesque'' it excluded the plebeians, and in other contexts it meant the general public or the common people as against the upper classes.^(OLD 2012) Poets used it of any multitude, even of fish or birds, and Seneca of a writer's following.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ Medieval writers used the plural for men and women or common folk, and the singular for the host of warriors, an echo of the old sense, while ''populus Dei'' meant Christendom, and the word also meant the laity of a Christian community and a [[m|en|parish]].^(Niermeyer 1976)^(Wiktionary)^(Köbler 2010) The Romance languages keep it as Romanian ''popor'', Italian ''popolo'', Portuguese ''povo'', Spanish ''pueblo'' and Old French ''pueple'', the source of French ''peuple'' and of [[m|en|people]].^(Wiktionary)^(Köbler 2010)^(Etymonline) English took [[m|en|pueblo]] from Spanish in 1808 for a town in Spanish America.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 450 BC – The Twelve Tables use it, according to Köbler.^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 235–200 BC – Naevius uses it.^(de Vaan 2008)

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of the people and the public.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 204–169 BC – Ennius calls a man the choice flower of the people.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero defines the ''populus'' and uses it of the State.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a crowd.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 807 – A Freising document has a medieval sense.^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 1808 – [[en|pueblo|alt=Pueblo]] is borrowed into English from Spanish.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|people]], a [[m|en|nation]]; a human community.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # The people as a political body, the State; at Rome, the whole citizen body, at times as distinct from the plebeians.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # The general public, the populace; the common people.^(OLD 2012)

+ # A multitude, a crowd; a following.^(OLD 2012)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' The host, the body of warriors.^(Niermeyer 1976)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' ''Populus Dei'', the Christians; the laity, the faithful; a [[m|en|parish]].^(Niermeyer 1976)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[popellus]]

+ * [[populātiō]]

+ * [[populāris]]

+ * [[populō]]

+ * [[populōsus]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[pūblicus]]

+ * [[Pūblius]]

+ * [[pūbēs]]

+ * [[plēbs]]

+ * [[en|people]]

+ * [[en|popular]]

+ * [[en|population]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ A different word, [[populus#2|alt=pōpulus]] with a long ''ō'', feminine, is the [[m|en|poplar]] tree; its origin is unknown, and it has been compared with [[grc|πτελέα|tr=pteléa|t=elm]], from which Köbler derives it.^(de Vaan 2008)^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010) Döderlein contrasts ''populus'' and [[civitas|alt=cīvitās]], a people as a political society, with [[gens|alt=gēns]] and [[natio|alt=nātiō]], a people by descent.^(Döderlein 1874)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}