duellum

Latin

Etymology

Pokorny connected the word to terms such as Ancient Greek δαίω (daíō), which is now often derived from *deh₂w- (“to burn”).^[1] De Vaan, a more modern author, instead favors Pinault 1987's proposal of a derivation from *dwenelos, a diminutive of *dwenos, itself an earlier form of bonus (“good, brave”). Perhaps the sense of "brave" allowed for the term to become a euphemism for wartime deeds, itself facilitating an eventual generalization to the overall concept of war.^[2]

Unusually, the initial dw of duellum changed to b in bellum. The expected development would have been *dwe- to *bo- (Compare duenos and bonus).^[3] The irregular outcome could be explained due to the effect of l exilis, though De Vaan notes that such an explanation is somewhat contradicted by the form Duelona. However, De Vaan also suggests that Duelona could be explained as a later development modeled after duellum.^[2]

The archaic form duellum survived in poetry. In Medieval Latin, the sense shifted to a combat between, specifically, two contenders, under the influence of the (non-cognate) word duo (“two”).

Pronunciation

(Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [duˈɛl.lũː]
(modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [duˈɛl.lum]

In Plautus, who uses this form occasionally as an archaizing alternative to bellum, duel- generally scans as a single syllable, implying a pronunciation with the original cluster /dw/. However, in Amphitryon 189 (quoted below), if the manuscripts are not corrupt, the scansion with /du/ may occur (du.ël.lo‿ex.stinc.to).^[4] But an alternative explanation is that this line starts with dvel.lo.ex.stinc.to, with hiatus rather than elision of the final -o.^[5]

The innovative pronunciation with /du/ occurs in Ennius' Annales ("Hos pestis necuit, pars occidit illa duellis") and in the works of subsequent poets such as Ovid, Horace, and Statius.^[6]

Noun

duellum n (genitive duellī); second declension

(poetic, Old Latin) war
- c. 200 BCE – 190 BCE, Plautus, Captivi prologus.0.67–68, (iambic senarius):
  Abeo. Valete, iudices iustissimi / domi duellique duellatores optumi.
  Translation by Henry Thomas Riley
  Fare ye well, at home, most upright judges, and in warfare most valiant combatants.
- c. 190 BCE – 185 BCE, Plautus, Amphitryon 1.1.188–189, (iambic octonarius):
  Victores victis hostibus legiones reveniunt domum,
  duello exstincto maximo atque internecatis hostibus.
  Victorious, the enemy vanquished, our legions are returning home,
  with a mighty war brought to an end and all the enemy slain.
(Medieval Latin) combat between two contenders, duel
Synonyms: certamen, rixa, certatus, dimicatio

Mors et vita duello conflixere mirando.
Death and life have contended in a marvelous combat.
(from the Easter Sequence)

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter), with locative.

	singular	plural
nominative	duellum	duella
genitive	duellī	duellōrum
dative	duellō	duellīs
accusative	duellum	duella
ablative	duellō	duellīs
vocative	duellum	duella
locative	duellī	—

The locative form duellī occurred as an archaic alternative to bellī with the same sense of "at war", "in wartime"; this form is found in the works of Plautus.^[7]

Synonyms

bellum

Derived terms

Descendants

→ Danish: duel
→ English: duel
→ Esperanto: duelo
→ Middle French: duel (semi-learned)
- French: duel
  - → Russian: дуэль (duelʹ)
- → Dutch: duel
→ Galician: duelo (semi-learned)
→ German: Duell
→ Ido: duelo
→ Italian: duello (semi-learned)
- → English: duelo
→ Norwegian Nynorsk: duell
→ Piedmontese: duel (semi-learned)
→ Portuguese: duelo (semi-learned)
→ Romanian: duel (semi-learned)
→ Spanish: duelo (semi-learned)
→ Swedish: duell

References

^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), “dāu-, dəu-, dū̆-”, in Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Indo-European Etymological Dictionary] (in German), volume 1, Bern, München: Francke Verlag, pages 179-180
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 De Vaan, Michiel (2008), “bellum”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 70
^ Sihler, Andrew L. (1995), New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 41
^ The Amphitruo of Plautus, edited with introduction and notes by Arthur Palmer, 1890. page 22
^ "Dvellvm", Wendell Clausen, 1971. Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 75, pp. 69-72.
^ Clausen 1971
^ Tenney Frank, 1904. Attraction of Mood in Early Latin. Page 56.