LOGOI

The corpus record — Latin

caballus1

caballus1

horse, esp. workhorse

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

Where it lives

  • Epistulae 3 · 3.03/10k
  • Epistularum 2 · 2.2/10k
  • Satyrarum libri 2 · 1.41/10k
  • Saturae 3 · 1.21/10k
  • Epigrammata 5 · 0.89/10k
  • Satyricon 2 · 0.66/10k
  • Epistulae. Selections. 1 · 0.23/10k
  • Historiam ecclesiasticam gentis Anglorum 1 · 0.14/10k
  • Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales 1 · 0.08/10k
  • Naturalis Historia 2 · 0.05/10k

What it meant

1. caballus — de Vaan

caballus 'horse, esp. workhorse' [m. o] (Lucil.+) IE cognates: Gr. PN Καβαλλας (4th cent.), καβάλλης 'nag' (Plut., Hsch.), καβάλλ(ε)ιον [n.] 'workhorse' (inscr. Callatis 3rd c. BC, Hsch.). The age of the Greek words shows that they are independent of caballus. Beekes interprets the word as an Asian loanword, and compares Turkish kaval adjunct of at 'horse', MoP kaval 'second class horse of mixed blood'. Although the … — [de Vaan, s.v. caballus, p. 91]

2. căballus — Lewis & Short

căballus, i, m., = kaba/llhs [perh. Celtic; hence Ital. cavallo, Fr. cheval, Engl. cavalry, cavalier, etc.; cf. cob, Germ. Gaul],

I an inferior riding- or pack-horse, a nag (poet. and in post-Aug. prose): tardus, Lucil. ap. Non. p. 86, 15; Varr. ib.: mediā de nocte caballum Arripit, his nag, Hor. Ep. 1, 7, 88; so id. S. 1, 6, 59; 1, 6, 103; id. Ep. 1, 18, 36; Juv. 10, 60; 11, 195; Sen. Ep. 87, 8; Petr. 117, 12; Dig. 33, 7, 15: Gorgoneus, jestingly for Pegasus, Juv. 3, 118.—
B Prov.
1 Optat ephippia bos piger, optat arare caballus, i.e. no one is content with his own condition, Hor. Ep. 1, 14, 43.—
2 Tamquam caballus in clivo, for one who walks wearily, Petr. 134, 2 (cf. Ov. R. Am. 394: principio clivi noster anhelat equus).

3. Căballus — Lewis & Short

Căballus, i, m.,

I a Roman cognomen, in the pun: qui Galbam salibus tuis, et ipsum Possis vincere Sextium Caballum. Non cuicumque datum est habere nasum. Ludit qui stolidā procacitate, non est Sextius ille, sed caballus, Mart. 1, 42 fin.

4. caballus — Walde–Hofmann

caballus, - m. „Pferd, Gaul, Klepper" (zunächst , Wallach*, vgl. Gl. V 16, 6, dann „Arbeitspferd*, später allgemein „Pferd“; seit Lucil, rom., wo es seit dem 6. Jh. equus verdrängt; Fem. equa 2. T. erhalten, s. Bógel Burs. Jb. 205, 31; späte Abltg. -arius „Pferdeknecht* CL, -icäre ,reiten* Anthim., rom.), Kurzform (vgl. Boisacq 406?) cabö, -önis (und cabónus, 7) m. ,caballus (magnus)* GI. : gr. kagdAÀnc * &pydıng … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. caballus, p. 157]

In the wild

6 of 22 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. caballus (scan pp. 91-92; entry #164). Root candidates: *kekubh-, *kwubh-, *xatis-.
  • Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. caballus (scan p. 104; entry #1414).
  • Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. caballus (scan pp. 157-158; entry #476).

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.