The corpus record — Latin

amnis

river

Generated live from the audited Latin corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

Where it lives

Mosella 32 · 98.43/10k
Ordo Urbium Nobilium 7 · 66.92/10k
De Herediolo 1 · 44.84/10k
Copa, Appendix Vergiliana 1 · 42.19/10k
Carmina Omnia 1 · 39.06/10k
Dirae, Appendix Vergiliana 1 · 15.41/10k
Historiae Alexandri Magni 111 · 14.96/10k
Cupido cruciatur 1 · 13.57/10k
de Bello Gothico 5 · 12.4/10k
Panegyricus dictus Probino et Olybrio consulibus 2 · 11.75/10k
Ab urbe condita, books 21-25 - 21 18 · 11.57/10k
Georgicon 16 · 11.31/10k

Densest 12 of 139 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. amnis — de Vaan

amnis 'river' [f. i] (Naev.+) Pit *afni- 'river'. PIE *h2ebh-n- 'river'. IE cognates: Olr. aub, gen. abae 'river' < *abo, -ens, Olr. abann, MW afon 'id/ < PCI. *abon-\ Hit. hapa- [c] 'river', hapae™ 6to wet, moisten', PaL hapna- [ c ] , CLuw. hapa/l·, HLuw. hapa/i- 'river*, Lye. xba(i)~ 'to irrigate' < PAnat. ^h^bo- 'river' < PIE *h2ebh-o-. Anatolian shows both o- and «-stem derivatives with the meaning 'river'. The … — [de Vaan, s.v. amnis, p. 53]

2. amnis — Lewis & Short

amnis, is, m. (

I fem., Plaut. Merc. 5, 2, 18; Naev. and Att. ap. Non. 191, 33; Varr. R. R. 3, 5, 9; cf. Prisc. pp. 652 and 658 P.; Rudd. I. p. 26, n. 37; Schneid. Gram. 2, 98; abl. regularly amne; but freq. amni in the poets, Verg. G. 1, 203; 3, 447; Hor. S. 1, 10, 62; Col. R. R. 10, 136; also in prose, Liv. 21, 5; 21, 27 al.; cf. Prisc. p. 766; Rhem. Pal. 1374 P.; Rudd. I. p. 85, n. 85) [qs. for apnis from Sanscr. ap = water; n. plur. āpas. Van.; v. aqua], orig., any broad and deep-flowing, rapid water; a stream, torrent, river (hence, esp. in the poets, sometimes for a rapidly-flowing stream or a torrent rushing down from a mountain = torrens; sometimes for a large river, opp. fluvius (a common river); sometimes also for the ocean as flowing round the land; it most nearly corresponds with our stream; in prose not often used before the histt. of the Aug. per.; in Cic. only in Aratus and in his more elevated prose; never in his Epistt.).

I Lit.: acervos altā in amni, Att., Trag. Rel. p. 178 Rib.: apud abundantem antiquam amnem et rapidas undas Inachi, Att. ap. Non. 192, 4 (Trag. Rel. p. 175 Rib.): Sic quasi amnis celeris rapit, sed tamen inflexu flectitur, Naev. Trag. Rel. p. 12 Rib.; Plaut. Poen. 3, 3, 15: molibus incurrit validis cum viribus amnis, Lucr. 1, 288 (v. the whole magnificent description, 1, 282- 290): Nilus unicus in terris, Aegypti totius amnis, id. 6, 714: ruunt de montibus amnes, Verg. A. 4, 164: amnes magnitudinis vastae, Sen. Q. N. 3, 19.—Also in distinction from the sea: cum pontus et amnes cuncti invicem commeant, Sen. Q. N. 4, 2.—On the contr. of the ocean, acc. to the Gr. *)wkeano\s potamo/s (Hom. Od. 11, 639): Oceani amnis, the ocean-stream, Verg. G. 4, 233: quā fluitantibus undis Solis anhelantes abluit amnis equos, Tib. 2, 5, 60: Nox Mundum caeruleo laverat amne rotas, id. 3, 4, 18 al.—

II Transf.

A Poet., of the constellation Eridanus: Eridanum cernes funestum magnis cum viribus amnem, Cic. Arat. 145 (as a transl. of the Gr. lei/yanon *)hridanoi=o, poluklau/stou potamoi=o, Arat. Phaenom. 360): Scorpios exoriens cum clarus fugerit amnis, Germanic. Arat. 648; cf. id. ib. 362. —

B Also poet. and in post-class. prose, any thing flowing, liquid, Verg. A. 12, 417; 7, 465: amnis musti, Pall. 11, 14, 18.—

C Of a writer, whose eloquence is thus compared to a flowing stream (v. flumen, II. B. and fluo, II. 2. B. 1.): alter (Herodotus) sine ullis salebris quasi sedatus amnis (i. e. a noiseless stream flowing on in majestic size and fulness) fluit; alter (Thucydides) incitatior fertur, Cic. Or. 12, 39.—

D Like flumen, as abstr., a current, stream: secundo amni, down or with the stream, Verg. G. 3, 447: adverso amne, up the stream, Curt. 10, 1 al.

3. amnis — Walde–Hofmann

amnis, -is f. (altl., später) m. (nach uvius, Schmalz* 368) „Fluß, Strom, (dicht.) Strömung, Wasser“ (seit Naev. spez. dicht.; -ieulus Liv.): aus *ab-nis (kaum *ap-nis) zu air. abann „Fluß*, kymr. afon, korn. bret. auon ds., gall. brit. FN. Abona, air. ab Gen. abae „Fluß“ (aba); grm. -apa, ahd. affa in FN., z.B. Al-apa, Wisil-affa „Wiesauf“ (wrsch. aus kelt. *abd verschoben, s. Walde-P. a. O.; anders, wegen.-appa … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. amnis, p. 72]

In the wild

6 of 1,480 attestations shown.

Where it came from

de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) Treated in de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) s.v. amnis (scan p. 53; entry #47). Root candidates: *afni-, *ama-, *h2emh3-.
Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. amnis (scan pp. 52-53; entry #498).
Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. amnis (scan p. 72; entry #186). Root candidates: *ab-, *ap-, *abd-.

Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.