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The corpus record — Latin

caterva

caterva

company, band

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

Where it lives

Densest 12 of 76 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. caterva — de Vaan

caterva 'company, band' [f. a] (Lucr.+) Derivatives: catervatim [adv.] 'in bands or herds' (Lucr.+), Pit. *kates-wa-. It. cognates: maybe U. kateramu, caterahamo [2p.ipv.II.ps.] '71 < denom. *katerra- 'to form a band' to a noun *kates-wa (e.g. Meiser 1986: 184). IE cognates: OE heador [n.] 'enclosure, prison'? Semantically, a connection with cassis 'net' and catena 'chain* is possible; at the basis there may be an … — [de Vaan, s.v. caterva, p. 112]

2. căterva — Lewis & Short

căterva, ae, f.,

I a crowd, troop, a band of men; in the sing. and plur. (class. in prose and poet.; syn.: turba, manus, agmen).
I In gen.: comitum, Lucr. 2, 628; cf. id. 2, 611; Verg. A. 1, 497; 11, 533; Ov. M. 12, 216: Postumius obviam cum bene magnā catervā suā venit, Cic. Mur. 33, 69; so id. de Or. 1, 40, 184; cf. Sall. C. 14, 1: catervae testium, Cic. Verr. 2, 5, 43, § 113: contra dicentium, id. Tusc. 1, 31, 77: pugilum, Suet. Calig. 18: infernae, Tib. 1, 2, 47 al.— Poet., of animals: pecudum, Lucr. 6, 1092: avium, flocks, Verg. A. 11, 456: canum, App. M. 4, p. 151, 26: anguinea, Tib. 3, 4, 87.—
B Trop.: verborum. a farrago of words, Gell. 15, 2, 3.—
II Esp.
A In milit. lang. freq., a body of soldiers, a troop, company, band; esp. of the loose order of barbarian nations (opp. to the Roman legions); cf. Veg. Mil. 2, 2; Isid. Orig. 9, 3, 46; so Nep. Chabr. 1, 2; Tac. A. 1, 56; 2, 17; 2, 45; 12, 33; Tib. 1, 2, 67; Verg. A. 8, 593; 12, 264; Hor. C. 1, 8, 16 al.—Of foot-soldiers (opp. equites), Verg. A. 7, 804; 11, 433; Hor. Ep. 2, 1, 190.—Rare of Roman troops, Petr. poët. 124, 281; or of cavalry, Sen. Agam. 598.—
B In dramatic lang., the whole company or troop of actors (usu. called grex). Plaut. Capt. fin.; and perh. also id. Cas. fin.; cf. Cic. de. Or 3, 50, 196; id. Sest. 55. 118.

3. caterva — Walde–Hofmann

caterva, -ae f. ,geschlossener Haufe (von Menschen, Tieren). Schar, Truppe* (seit Caeci): u. kateramu, caterahamo „catervamini, congregamini* (wohl -r- aus -ru-, v. Planta 1 195, Götze IF. 41, 91; bei Ansatz von *katerä-, Solmsen Stud. 137, wäre Synkope des e zu erwarten); weiterhin wohl als *cates-oyä zu coténa „Kette“ aus *cates-nä (s. 2. cassis, Havet MSL. 4, 86; Solmsen Stud. 137. IF. 182 catinus — 1. cattus. … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. caterva, p. 213]

In the wild

6 of 219 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. caterva (scan p. 112; entry #223). Root candidates: *katerra-, *kates-, *kaUes-.
  • Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. caterua (scan p. 129; entry #1895).
  • Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. caterva (scan pp. 213-214; entry #594). Root candidates: *katerä-, *gat-.

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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.