comitia Latin · revision 30814

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=c. 250–184 BC, Plautus|origins=la com-, ine-pro *h₁ey-}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [kɔˈmɪ.ti.a]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [koˈmit.t͡si.a]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''comitia''' ''n pl'' (genitive comitiōrum); second declension^(Wiktionary)

+ Inscriptions abbreviate it ''comit''.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is the plural of [[m|la|comitium|t=place of assembly]], from [[m|la|con-|t=together]] and [[m|la|eō|t=to go]], with the suffix [[m|la|-ium]]: the place where people “go together”.^(OLD 2012)^(TLL) De Vaan sets it beside [[m|la|comes|t=companion]], from [[itc-pro|*kom-i-t-|t=going together]].^(de Vaan 2008) Varro too explained the place as named from the people “coming together” there.^(TLL)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Plautus, ''Menaechmi'': men of standing ought to attend the public meeting and the assemblies (''cōntiōnī … atque comitiīs'').^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The singular ''comitium'' was the place in the Forum where the Roman people met; the plural ''comitia'' is the assembly itself, called above all to elect magistrates and priests.^(OLD 2012) The kind of assembly is named by an adjective: ''comitia centuriāta'', ''tribūta'' and ''cūriāta'', as Cicero has a man who took the auspices for the tribal assembly and then held the centuriate one.^(OLD 2012) It also means elections held outside Rome and, as a date, election time (Cicero: whether I must be in Rome for the elections).^(OLD 2012) Plautus uses it figuratively, of a meeting that decides his fate: “I'll go in, where the assembly is held on my life”.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ Church Latin glosses it “assembly, elections”.^(Stelten 1995) In medieval Latin it was still used of assemblies.^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of public assemblies.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero of the tribal and centuriate assemblies and of election time.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # ''(plural)'' An [[m|en|assembly]] of the Roman people, especially for [[m|en|election|alt=elections]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(Stelten 1995)

+ # An election held elsewhere than in Rome; election time.^(OLD 2012)

+ # An assembly for lawmaking or judgment.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[comitium]]

+ * [[comes]]

+ * [[eō]]

+ * [[comitiālis]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}