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The corpus record — Latin

civis

civis

citizen

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 234 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. civis — de Vaan

civis 'citizen' [m., f. i] (Lex XII+ (ceivis), P1.+) Derivatives: civicus 'of one's town; civil' (P1.+), cmlis 'of the citizens, civil' (Lucr.+), cTvitas 'an organized community, state' (P1.+). Pit *kehvi- 'society'. It. cognates: O. ceus [nom.sg.] 'citizen'. PIE *kei-uo- 'friendly, intimate, dear'. IE cognates: Skt. siva- 'favourable', Latv. — [de Vaan, s.v. civis, p. 130]

2. cīvis — Lewis & Short

cīvis (cīves, C. I. L. 3, 966; 3337 et saep.; ceivis, S. C. Bacch. and Lex Thoria; ceus in Tab. Bant.), is, comm. (

abl. usually cive:
I civi, Plaut. Pers. 4, 3, 6; Cic. Verr. 2, 2, 13, §§ 32 and 33 Zumpt N. cr.; id. Planc. 40, 96; 41, 97; id. Sest. 12, 29; id. Balb. 19, 43; id. Att. 7, 3, 4; 14, 11, 1; cf. Prisc. p. 766 P.; dub. Cic. Phil. 5, 19, 52) [root ki- of kei=mai, to lie, abide; cf. kw/mh], a citizen (male or female; opp. pe regrinus, Cic. Verr. 2, 4, 35, § 77; id. Off. 1, 34, 124; Liv. 22, 35, 5; opp. advena, Cic. Verr. 2, 4, 34, § 74; or to hospes, Ter. Phorm. 2, 2, 14; or to hostis, Liv. 8, 36, 1; Hor. Ep. 1, 17, 33; Ov. M. 13, 234).
I In gen.
a (Very freq. in all periods and kinds of composition.) Enn. Ann. 174 Vahl.; Plaut. Am. 1, 1, 220: optati cives, populares, incolae, accolae, advenae omnes, Date viam, etc., id. Aul. 3, 1, 1: quod civis cum civi agat, Cic. Verr. 2, 2, 13, § 32: cives cum civibus de virtute certabant, Sall. C. 9, 2 al.—
b In fem.: Attica, Plaut. Poen. 1, 2, 159: civis femina, id. Pers. 4, 3, 6; Ter. And. 1, 3, 16; 5, 1, 14: civis virgo, id. Eun. 5, 2, 19; id. Ad. 4, 7, 7: Romana, Cic. Balb. 24, 55; 13, 30; Nep. Them. 1, 2 al.: civis Romanus, Enn. ap. Censor. p. 2725 P. (Ann. v. 174 Vahl.); Cic. Verr. 2, 5, 57, § 147; 2, 4, 61, § 136. —Concerning the political rights of the civis Romanus (opposed to peregrinus or hostis), v. Zimmern, Rechtsgesch. 2, § 123 sq.; Dict. of Antiq. p. 260 sqq.—
II Esp., a fellow-citizen (for which, in late Lat., concivis): Lunaï portum cognoscite cives, Enn. ap. Pers. 6, 9 (Ann. v. 16 Vahl.); Hor. Ep. 1, 1, 53; Ov. M. 13, 234.—So particularly, civis meus, tuus, etc., my, thy fellow-citizen, Cato ap. Fest. p. 234; Plaut. Trin. 1, 2, 63; Cic. Cat. 1, 7, 17; id. Mil. 34, 93; id. Div. 2, 2, 6; id. Fin. 1, 4, 10.—In fem.: defende cives tuas, senex, Plaut. Rud. 3, 4, 37.—
B A subject: imperare corpori, ut rex civibus suis, Cic. Rep. 3, 25, 37.—
III Figuratively: civis totius mundi, a citizen of the world, Cic. Leg. 1, 23, 61.

In the wild

6 of 2,494 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. civis (scan p. 130; entry #277). Root candidates: *kehvi-.
  • Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. ciuis (scan p. 148; entry #2204).

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.