castrum
Appearance
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from Latin castrum. Doublet of Caister and Chester.
Noun
[edit]castrum (plural castra)
- (historical) Among the Ancient Romans, a building or plot of land used as a military defensive position.
Latin
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Proto-Italic *kastrom, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱes- (“to cut, cut off, separate”) + Proto-Indo-European *-trom (Latin -trum) (Watkins, 1969).[1] Cognate with Sanskrit शस्त्र (śastrá, “cutting tool, sword”).[2] See also castrō, careō.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): /ˈkas.trum/, [ˈkäs̠t̪rʊ̃ˑ]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈkas.trum/, [ˈkäst̪rum]
Noun
[edit]castrum n (genitive castrī); second declension
- castle, fort, fortress
- (chiefly in the plural) several soldiers' tents situated together; hence, a military camp, an encampment
- c. 52 BCE, Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico 5.9:
- Caesar exposito exercitu et loco castris idoneo capto […]
- Caesar, having disembarked his army and chosen a convenient place for the camp […]
- Caesar exposito exercitu et loco castris idoneo capto […]
Usage notes
[edit]Use in singular is rarer than that of castellum.
Declension
[edit]Second-declension noun (neuter).
singular | plural | |
---|---|---|
nominative | castrum | castra |
genitive | castrī | castrōrum |
dative | castrō | castrīs |
accusative | castrum | castra |
ablative | castrō | castrīs |
vocative | castrum | castra |
Derived terms
[edit]Descendants
[edit]Inherited
Borrowed
- → Albanian: -kastër
- → Aramaic: קַצְרָא (qaṣrā) / ܩܰܨܪܳܐ (qaṣrā)
- → Arabic: قَصْر (qaṣr)
- Hijazi Arabic: قصر (gaṣur)
- Moroccan Arabic: قصر (qṣar)
- → Italian: cassero, cassaro
- → Old Catalan: alcacer
- Catalan: alcàsser
- → Old Galician-Portuguese: alcaçar, alcaçer
- → Old Spanish: alcaçar, alcacer
- Spanish: alcázar (see there for further descendants)
- → Persian: قصر (qasr)
- → Sicilian: càssaru
- → Swahili: kasri
- → Uyghur: قەسىر (qesir)
- → Arabic: قَصْر (qaṣr)
- → Berber [languages?]: aɣasru, ɣasru
- → Byzantine Greek: κάστρον (kástron)
- → English: castrum
- → Hebrew: קְצָרָה (qəṣārā)
- → Old English: ceaster
- → Romanian: castru
References
[edit]- ^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “castrum”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 97-8
- ^ Olsen, Birgit Anette (1988) The Proto-Indo-European Instrument Noun Suffix *-tlom and its Variants (Historisk-filosofiske Meddelelser; 55), Copenhagen: Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, →ISBN, page 16: “3.1.1. *k̂əs-trom/*-trah₂ “cutting tool””
Further reading
[edit]- “castrum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “castrum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- castrum 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)
- castrum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
- veterans; experienced troops: qui magnum in castris usum habent
- to disarm a person: armis (castris) exuere aliquem
- to leave troops to guard the camp: praesidio castris milites relinquere
- to mount guard in the camp: vigilias agere in castris (Verr. 4. 43)
- to keep the troops in camp: copias castris continere
- to remain inactive in camp: se (quietum) tenere castris
- veterans; experienced troops: qui magnum in castris usum habent
- “castrum”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
- Pokorny, Julius (1959) Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Indo-European Etymological Dictionary] (in German), volume 2, Bern, München: Francke Verlag, page 586
Categories:
- English terms borrowed from Latin
- English terms derived from Latin
- English doublets
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English nouns with irregular plurals
- English terms with historical senses
- en:Ancient Rome
- Latin terms inherited from Proto-Italic
- Latin terms derived from Proto-Italic
- Latin terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Latin terms suffixed with -trum
- Latin 2-syllable words
- Latin terms with IPA pronunciation
- Latin lemmas
- Latin nouns
- Latin second declension nouns
- Latin neuter nouns in the second declension
- Latin neuter nouns
- Latin terms with quotations
- Latin words in Meissner and Auden's phrasebook