LOGOI

The corpus record — Latin

classis

classis

(social) class; levy; fleet

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

What it meant

1. classis — de Vaan

classis '(social) class; levy; fleet' [f. /] (Andr.+) Derivatives: clossicus 'of the highest class; of the fleet' (Cato+). Pit *klassi- 'call-out, appeal'. PIE *klhrd(h)-ti- 'a call' EM regard 'roll-call, appeal' as the oldest meaning. The word has been connected with Gr, κέλαδος 'noise', but this is semantically unattractive. If we accept the native Roman etymology with calare, we can reconstruct a derivative in a … — [de Vaan, s.v. classis, p. 132]

2. classis — Lewis & Short

classis (old orthog. CLASIS, Column. Rostr.; v. under I. B. 2.), is (

I acc. sing. usu. classem; classim, Auct. B. Afr. 9, 2; abl. usu. classe; classi, Verg. A. 8, 11; Liv. 23, 41, 8; Vell. 2, 79), f. root cal-, cla-, of clamo, kale/w; prop. the people as assembled or called together, hence,
I After the division of the Roman people by Servius Tullius into six (or, the citizens who paid tribute alone being reckoned, into five) classes,
1 A class, Liv. 1, 42, 5; 1, 43, 2 sq.; Cic. Rep. 2, 22, 39 sq.; Gell. 6 ($3), 13, 1 sq.; Cic. Fl. 7, 15; Liv. 1, 42, 5; 1, 43, 1 sqq.; Plin. 33, 3, 13, § 43; cf. Dion. Halic. 4, 16 sq.; 7, 59: prima classis vocatur... tum secunda classis, etc., Cic. Phil. 2, 33, 82: infra classem; v. classicus, I.—
2 Trop.: qui (philosophi) mihi cum illo collati, quintae classis videntur, i.e. of the lowest rank, Cic. Ac. 2, 23, 73; cf. classicus, I. B.—Hence,
B In milit. lang., the whole body of the citizens called to arms, an army. 1 Of the land army (mostly very ancient): procincta, Lex Numae in Fest. s. v. opima, p. 189, 13 Müll.: classis procincta [id est exercitus armatus, Gloss.], Fab. Pictor. ap. Gell. 10, 15, 4; cf. Gell. 1, 11, 3; Paul. ex Fest. p. 56, 3: classi quoque ad Fidenas pugnatum cum Vejentibus quidam in annales rettulere, Liv. 4, 34, 6 Weissenb. ad loc.: Hortinae classes populique Latini, Verg. A. 7, 716 Serv.—
2 Of men at sea, the fleet, including the troops in it (the usu. signif. in prose and poetry): CLASESQVE. NAVALES. PRIMOS. ORNAVET.... CLASEIS. POENICAS...., Column. Rostr., v. 7 sq.: nomina in classem dare, Liv. 28, 45, 19: cetera classis... fugerunt, id. 35, 26, 9: ut classem duceret in Ligurum oram, id. 40, 26, 8; 41, 24, 13; cf. id. 42, 48, 10: navium classis, id. 22, 37, 13: posteaquam maximas aedificasset ornassetque classes, Cic. Imp. Pomp. 4, 9: classem instruere atque ornare, Cic. Verr. 2, 5, 51, § 135: classis ornandae reficiendaeque causā, Liv 9, 30, 4: comparare, Cic. Fl. 14, 33: facere, Caes. B. C. 3, 42 al.: classe navigare, by ship, Cic. Fl. 14, 32; cf. Verg. A. 1, 379; 8, 11; Hor.C. 3, 11, 48: classes = naves, Verg. A. 2, 30: geminasque legit de classe biremis, id. ib. 8, 79: omittere, id. ib. 5, 794: armare, id. ib. 4, 299: deducere, id. G. 1, 255: efficere, Nep. Them. 2, 3: (Suiones) praeter viros armaque classibus valent, Tac. G. 44. —
II In the post-Aug. per., sometimes, a class, division, in gen.: pueros in classes distribuerant, Quint. 1, 2, 23; so id. 1, 2, 24; 10, 5, 21; Suet. Tib. 46: operarum, Col. 1, 9, 7: servorum, Petr. 74, 7.

In the wild

6 of 2,171 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. classis (scan p. 132; entry #282). Root candidates: *klassi-, *klaw-, *skleud-.
  • Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. Classis (scan p. 149; entry #2231).

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.