The corpus record — Latin

filius

a son

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

Where it lives

Utrum Pater Et Filius Ac Spiritus Sanctus De Divinitate Substantialiter Praedicentur Liber 16 · 299.63/10k
Adversus Praxean 411 · 277.98/10k
Fragmenta 2 · 148.15/10k
Ab urbe condita, fragments 3 · 142.86/10k
De Fide Catholica 26 · 134.85/10k
Ab Urbe Condita, books 8-10 - 11s 2 · 101.01/10k
De Regibus 4 · 90.29/10k
Timotheus 5 · 76.8/10k
Excerpta Controversiae 164 · 76.49/10k
Severus 32 · 75.99/10k
Dion 10 · 67.39/10k
Maximini Duo 33 · 60.84/10k

Densest 12 of 290 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. fīlĭus — Lewis & Short

fīlĭus, ii (

voc. filie, Liv. Andr. in Prisc. p. 741 P.,

I dat. plur. FILIBVS, Inscr. Grut. 553, 8; 554, 4, like DIIBVS from deus), m. root fev-o, to give birth to (fe-o), whence: fecundus, femina, felix, etc., lit., he who is born, a son (syn. plur.: nati, liberi).

I Lit.

A In gen.: Marci filius, Enn. ap. Cic. Brut. 15, 58 (Ann. v. 306 Vahl.); id. Rep. 2, 19; id. Lael. 1, 3: Venus et remisso filius arcu, i. e. Cupido, Hor. C. 3, 27, 68 et saep. —

B In partic.: filius familias, or, in one word, filiusfamilias, v. familia.—

II Transf.

A With terra, fortuna, etc.: terrae filius, a son of mother earth, i. e. a man of unknown origin (opp.: nobilis, honesto genere natus): et huic terrae filio nescio cui committere epistolam tantis de rebus non audeo, Cic. Att. 1, 13, 4; id. Fam. 7, 9, 3; Pers. 6, 59; cf.: Saturnum Caeli filium dictum, quod soleamus eos, quorum virtutem miremur aut repentino advenerint, decaelo cecidisse dicere: terrae autem, quos ignotis parentibus natos terrae filios nominemus, Lact. 1, 11: fortunae filius, a child of fortune, fortune's favorite (Gr. pai=s th=s *tu/xhs), Hor. S. 2, 6, 49; called also: gallinae albae filius, Juv. 13, 141: Celtiberiae filius, i. e. an inhabitant of Celtiberia, a Celtiberian, Cat. 37, 18.—

B Filii, in gen., children: *sunezeugme/non jungit et diversos sexus, ut cum marem feminamque filios dicimus, Quint. 9, 3, 63; Cic. ad Brut. 1, 12, 2; Gell. 12, 1, 21; cf. sing.: ut condemnaretur filius aut nepos, si pater aut avus deliquisset, Cic. N. D. 3, 38, 90.—

2 Descendants: natura docet parentes pios, filiorum appellatione omnes, quiex nobis descendunt, contineri: nec enim dulciore nomine possumus nepotes nostros, quam filii, appellare, Dig. 50, 16, 220, § 3.—

C Of animals, Col. 6, 37, 4.

2. filius — Walde–Hofmann

filius (inschr. schlechtere Schreibung feil-) -5 m. ,Sohn*, eig. „Säugling“ (s. Festschr. Streitberg 384; dafür o.-u. puklo- „Sohn“, vgl. zur Konkurrenz von puer Stolz-Schmalz* 29, von (g)nätus Köhm Alat. Forsch. 122 ff, Marouzeau REL. 10, 371£.; s. auch J. Pauli, Enfant, garcon, fille dans les langues romanes, Lund 1919; zu filius beim Vatersnamen s. Schmalz5 593. 618, Ernout-Meillet 344) (seit XII tab., rom. [vlt. … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. filius, p. 528]

In the wild

filii Tacitus, Annales 12.p67
filius Plautus, Mercator 2.1
filius Tertullian, Adversus Praxean 15
filium Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria 9.2.82
filio Livy, Ab urbe condita 1.11s
filio Historia Augusta, De vita Hadriani 24

6 of 5,160 attestations shown.

Where it came from

Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. filius (scan p. 258; entry #4016).
Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. filius (scan pp. 528-529; entry #1124). Root candidates: *dhi-, *bher-.

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.