The corpus record — Latin

biennium

period of two years

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

Where it lives

Galba 2 · 7.25/10k
Divus Titus 1 · 6.72/10k
Pro P. Quinctio 5 · 5.78/10k
Tiberius 4 · 4.4/10k
Vitellius 1 · 4.15/10k
Mercator 3 · 3.5/10k
Maximus et Balbinus 1 · 3.18/10k
De agri cultura 4 · 2.56/10k
Res Rustica, Books I-IX 20 · 2.54/10k
Ab urbe condita, books 1-5 - 3 5 · 2.48/10k
Ab urbe condita, books 21-25 - 22 4 · 2.33/10k
Commentariolum Petitionis 1 · 2.3/10k

Densest 12 of 72 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. biennium — de Vaan

biennium 'period of two years' (PL+). Pit. *atno- 'year\ It cognates: (λ aceneis [gen.sg,], acenei, akenei [loc.sg.], acimum [gen.pL], akun. [ace, or gen.pl.], U. acnu [acc.sg./pl.] 'year' < PSab, *akno< Pit, *atno~. Possibly also in U. peraknem, perakne [accsg.m.], perakre [acasg.f], peracrU peracrei [abl.sg.m.], peracnio, peracrio [gen.pL], perakneu [nom,acc.pl.n,], peracris [abl.pl.] < *perakni- 'a certain … — [de Vaan, s.v. biennium, p. 57]

2. bĭennĭum — Lewis & Short

bĭennĭum, ii, n.bis-annus,

I a period or space of two years, two years: jam biennium est, cum, etc., Plaut. Merc. 3, 1, 35: intra tempus biennii, Col. 3, 9, 6: hoc factum est ferme abhinc biennium, Plaut. Bacch. 3, 2, 4 (imitated by Ps.-Plaut. Merc. prol. 12): biennium ibi perpetuum misera illum tuli, Ter. Hec. 1, 2, 12; Caes. B. G. 1, 3; Cic. Phil. 5, 3, 7; Liv. 5, 14, 2: biennium provinciam obtinuit, Cic. Verr. 2, 3, 93, § 216; 2, 4, 30, § 67: lex usum et auctoritatem fundi jubet esse biennium, id. Caecin. 19, 54; Quint. Ep. ad Tryph. 1; id. Inst. 1, 12, 9: biennio postquam abii, Plaut. Bacch. 2, 1, 1: comitia biennio habita, Liv. 5, 14, 2: matres, quae biennio durant, Plin. 11, 21, 24, § 73; Suet. Galb. 7: consulatum biennio post ultro petiit, id. Aug. 26: intra tempus bienni, Col. R. R. 3, 9, 6: intra biennium, Quint. 1, 2, 9: ultra biennium, Tac. A. 1, 1.

3. biennium — Walde–Hofmann

biennium, -i n. „Zeitraum von zwei Jahren“ (seit Plaut.): bi- und annus. Daneben diennium Cl. wie auch dimus ,bimus*, divium bivium*, disuleus (diss- Paul. Fest.) ,bisulcus*, difäriam „bifaram" und Varros des „bes“ (wenn nicht für *dvzs) mit gräzisierendem di- — dı- (Skutsch De nom. lat. comp. 36, Rom. Jbb. V, 1,65, Sommer Hdb.? 223, Leumann-Stolz5 292), nicht mit einer nur für dis- (s. d.) anzuerkennenden idg. … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. biennium, p. 136]

In the wild

biennio Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, books 26-27 - 27 p72
biennio Julius Caesar, De Bello Civili 3.32.5
biennii Columella, Res Rustica, Books I-IX 3.3.9
biennium Historia Augusta, Alexander Severus 64
biennium Cicero, Philippicae 1.19
biennio Livy, Ab urbe condita 1.3.65.9

6 of 215 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. biennium (scan p. 57; entry #64). Root candidates: *atno-, *perakni-.
Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. biennium (scan pp. 136-137; entry #398). Root candidates: *di-, *dwi-, *bhe-.

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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.