saltus Latin · revision 8280

+ {{homograph|1|leap}}

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+ * [[saltuātim]]

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+ {{homograph|2|forest pass, woodland pasture}}

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+ {{infobox|confidence=uncertain|attested=Ennius}}

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+ ==Forms==

+ '''saltus''' ''m'' (genitive saltūs); fourth declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ The forest pass is of uncertain origin; it is sometimes associated with ''saltus'' “leap”.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary) Varro derived it from [[salvus]], and Isidore of Seville from trees leaping upward.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(Isidore) Georges compares [[grc|ἄλσος|tr=álsos|t=grove]], which Wiktionary thinks unlikely, and Fay compared [[gem-pro|*walþuz|t=forest]], as does Köbler.^(Georges 1913)^(Wiktionary)^(Köbler 2010)

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+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Ennius speaks of the hiding places of forest passes and muddy bogs.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

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+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It meant hilly country with woods and ravines, and especially a narrow pass or defile, as Livy's Caudine Forks, “two high narrow wooded passes”, and the pass of Thermopylae.^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913) Aelius Gallus defines it as land with woods and pastures and herdsmen's huts, and it came to mean a woodland pasture and an estate with pastures, as in Cicero and the jurists.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913) As a land measure it was four ''centuriae'', 800 ''iugera''.^(Georges 1913)^(Wiktionary) Plautus has the proverb “to catch two boars in one ''saltus''”.^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913) It survives in Spanish ''soto'' and Portuguese ''souto'' “grove”.^(Wiktionary)

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+ ==Timeline==

+ * 204–169 BC – Ennius, of forest passes.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus' proverb of two boars.^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913)

+ * c. 50 BC – Caesar, of the passes of the Pyrenees.^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913)

+ * 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, of the Caudine Forks.^(OLD 2012)

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+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A narrow pass, [[m|en|defile]].^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913)

+ # Wooded, hilly country; a woodland [[m|en|pasture]]; an estate.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913)

+ # A land measure of four ''centuriae''.^(Georges 1913)^(Wiktionary)

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+ ==Word family==