colonus

See also: Colonus

English

Etymology

From Latin colōnus.

Noun

colonus (plural coloni)

  1. (historical) A sharecropping tenant farmer of the late Roman Empire and Early Middle Ages.

Anagrams

Latin

Etymology

From the root of colō (to cultivate, till; inhabit). The source of the ending -ōnus is uncertain. Leumann 1977 proposes a formation from agricola, remodeled by analogy to patrōnus.[1] Alternatively, De Vaan 2008 tentatively suggests it could go back to Proto-Italic *kʷolō-no-, a deinstrumental formation built from the singular instrumental form *kʷolh₁-oh₁ of an o-stem action noun *kʷólh₁-o- + the adjective-forming suffix *-no- (Latin -nus).[2] Ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European *kʷel(h₁)-.

Pronunciation

Noun

colōnus m (genitive colōnī, feminine colōna); second declension

  1. farmer, especially a kind of tenant farmer or sharecropper; husbandman; tiller of the soil
    • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 1.677–678:
      frūgibus immēnsīs avidōs satiāte colōnōs,
      ut capiant cultūs praemia digna suī.
      Satisfy eager farmers with abundant crops,
      that they may reap rewards worthy of their labors.
  2. colonist, colonial, inhabitant
    Colonos novos ascribere.
    To appoint new inhabitants.

Declension

Second-declension noun.

singular plural
nominative colōnus colōnī
genitive colōnī colōnōrum
dative colōnō colōnīs
accusative colōnum colōnōs
ablative colōnō colōnīs
vocative colōne colōnī

Synonyms

Derived terms

Descendants

  • Catalan: colon
  • French: colon
  • Italian: colono
  • Portuguese: colono
  • Sicilian: culunu
  • Spanish: colono

References

  1. ^ Leumann, Manu; Hofmann, Johann Baptist; Szantyr, Anton (1977), Lateinische Grammatik: Lateinische Laut- und Formenlehre, CH Beck, § 294.3.a, page 323:
    patrōnus und matrōna, vielleicht mit gr. υἱωνός 'Enkel' zu vergleichen (s. auch Schmeja, IF 68, 22 f. wegen gr. μάτρως πάτρως 'Mutter- Vater-bruder'); patr- erst nach mātr- (Wackernagel, Kl. Schr. 472). Von agricola aus colōnus als Gegenstück zu patrōnus (vgl. Cato agr. praef. 2).
  2. ^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 125

Further reading

  • colonus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • colonus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • "colonus", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
  • colonus”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
  • colonus”, in The Perseus Project (1999), Perseus Encyclopedia[1]
  • colonus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers