civitas

See also: Civitas

English

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Latin cīvitās. Doublet of city.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): (closer to Classical Latin) /ˈki.wɪˌtɑs/, (closer to Ecclesiastical Latin) /ˈt͡ʃiviˌtɑs/
    • (file)
    • (file)

Noun

civitas (plural civitates)

  1. (Roman history) the social body of the citizens united by law
  2. (Roman history) a city and its territory
  3. (pedantic) a community
  4. (pedantic) a state, (chiefly) a city-state

References

Anagrams

Latin

Alternative forms

Etymology

From earlier ceivitās, from Proto-Italic *keiwitāts. Equivalent to cīvis (citizen) + -tās.

Pronunciation

Noun

cīvitās f (genitive cīvitātis); third declension

  1. (Classical Latin) citizenship and its rights; often referring to Roman citizenship
  2. (Classical Latin) the state, body politic, citizens of a territory (collectively)
  3. (Classical Latin, metonymically) a city and all external territory (thus distinguished from urbs)
  4. (Classical Latin, metonymically) city-states, kingdoms, or tribes, especially under Roman rule.
  5. (Medieval Latin) a city: a major, biblical, or specially incorporated town, particularly cathedral cities
    His diebus Langobardi Italia invaserunt, Vincentiam Veronamque et reliquas Venetiarum civitates coepit, et per tres annos Ticino possedit.
    In those days that the Lombards invaded Italy, he began Vincentia & Verona and the rest of the Venetian cities, and possessed Ticino for three years.
  6. (Medieval Latin) a borough: a walled settlement, sometimes particularly former Roman towns
  7. (Ecclesiastical Latin) either the Church or Heaven

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case Singular Plural
Nominative cīvitās cīvitātēs
Genitive cīvitātis cīvitātum
cīvitātium
Dative cīvitātī cīvitātibus
Accusative cīvitātem cīvitātēs
Ablative cīvitāte cīvitātibus
Vocative cīvitās cīvitātēs

The genitive plural in -um is the etymologically expected one as well as the more frequent.

Derived terms

Descendants

  • Balkan Romance:
    • Aromanian: tsitati
    • Istro-Romanian: četåte
    • Romanian: cetate
  • Dalmatian:
  • Italo-Romance:
  • Padanian:
  • Gallo-Romance: (see there for further descendants)
  • Ibero-Romance: (see there for further descendants)
  • Insular Romance:
  • Unsorted:
    • Asturian: ciudá
    • Galician: Cividade, Subidá (toponyms)
    • Mirandese: cidade
  • Borrowings:
    • English: civitas
    • Proto-Albanian: [Term?]
    • Proto-Brythonic: *kiwdọd (see there for further descendants)

References

  • civitas”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • civitas”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • civitas in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
  • civitas in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
  • Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
    • Plato's ideal republic: civitas optima, perfecta Platonis
    • Plato's ideal republic: illa civitas Platonis commenticia
    • Plato's ideal republic: illa civitas, quam Plato finxit
    • universal history: omnis memoria, omnis memoria aetatum, temporum, civitatum or omnium rerum, gentium, temporum, saeculorum memoria
    • the constitution: descriptio civitatis
    • to give the state a constitution: civitati leges, iudicia, iura describere
    • to be the chief man in the state: principem civitatis esse
    • the head of the state: rector civitatis (De Or. 1. 48. 211)
    • to make a man a citizen: civitate donare aliquem (Balb. 3. 7)
    • to enroll as a citizen, burgess: in civitatem recipere, ascribere, asciscere aliquem
    • to present a person with the freedom of the city: civitatem alicui dare, tribuere, impertire
    • to naturalise oneself as a citizen of another country: civitatem mutare (Balb. 11. 27)
    • the dregs of the people: faex populi, plebis, civitatis
    • aristocracy (as a form of government): civitas, quae optimatium arbitrio regitur
    • democracy: imperium populi or populare, civitas or res publica popularis
    • to banish a person, send him into exile: ex urbe (civitate) expellere, pellere aliquem
    • to banish a person, send him into exile: de, e civitate aliquem eicere
    • to expel a person from the city, country: exterminare (ex) urbe, de civitate aliquem (Mil. 37. 101)
    • to keep the citizens in servile subjection: civitatem servitute oppressam tenere (Dom. 51. 131)
    • to extort money from the communities: pecuniam cogere a civitatibus
    • to compel communities to provide troops: imperare milites civitatibus
    • to compel communities to provide hostages: obsides civitatibus imperare
  • civitas”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • civitas”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cīvitās.

Noun

civitas n (plural civitasuri)

  1. civitas

Declension

References

  • civitas in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN
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