confinium Latin · revision 33831

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=c. 250–184 BC, Plautus|origins=la fīnis}}

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''cōnfīnium''' ''n'' (genitive cōnfīniī or cōnfīnī); second declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|cōnfīnis|-ium|t1=bordering, adjoining]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(Köbler 2010) [[m|la|cōnfīnis]] is formed from [[m|la|fīnis|t=boundary, end]], whose etymology de Vaan calls disputed: Walde and Hofmann reconstruct ⟨*fīg-s-ni-⟩ “driven in”, of a boundary stone or post, and de Vaan also considers a root [[ine-pro|*bʰiH-|t=to strike]].^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ De Vaan finds it first in Plautus,^(de Vaan 2008) who uses the plural in the ''Poenulus'' of the limits of a plot that will be marked out.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Its central sense is a common boundary between lands, or the strip that forms it: Varro has trees that grow on the boundary and creep into both fields.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) From this it is any border or limit between things, as Ovid's meeting point of the three parts of the world, and the point dividing one time from another, as his border of doubtful night.^(OLD 2012) Velleius Paterculus uses it of a state between two conditions, how narrow the line between safety and ruin had been, and Statius of the nearness of death.^(OLD 2012) Lewis & Short note that it is commonest after the Augustan period and perhaps found only once in Cicero.^(Lewis & Short 1879) In Medieval Latin it is a boundary, a frontier region, a territory or township, and waste land forming part of a demesne.^(Niermeyer 1976)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of the limits of a plot.^(OLD 2012)^(de Vaan 2008)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 116–27 BC – Varro, of the boundary between fields.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid, of limits in space and time.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 20 BC–30 AD – Velleius Paterculus, of the line between safety and ruin.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * Medieval Latin – A frontier area, territory, township.^(Niermeyer 1976)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A common [[m|en|boundary]] between territories; the area forming such a boundary.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # Any limit or [[m|en|border]] dividing one thing from another;^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary) ''(plural)'' limits, confines.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A limit separating one period of time from another.^(OLD 2012)

+ # ''(figurative)'' An intermediate state, a borderline.^(OLD 2012)

+ # Nearness, [[m|en|proximity]].^(OLD 2012)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' A frontier region; a territory; a township.^(Niermeyer 1976)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[cōnfīnius]]

+ * [[fīnis]]

+ * [[cōnfīnis]]

+ * [[affīnis]]

+ * [[en|confine]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}