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The corpus record — Latin

filum

filum

thread, line; build (of a person)

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

What it meant

1. filum — de Vaan

filum 'thread, line; build (of a person)' [η. ο] (Ρ1.+) Oenvativssifilatim 'thread by thread5 (Lucr.). Pit *fi(s)lo-. PIE *gwhiH-(s-)lo- 'sinew, sinew thread'. IE cognates: MW gieu, W. giau 'sinew, nerves', OCo. goiuen^ MCo. (lenited) ieyw < *gii- < *gi- < PIE *gwiH-; SkLjjya'tendon, bow-string', Av.jiia- 'bow-string' < Iln *JiHaH-y Gr. βιός 'bow; bow-string' < *gwiH-o-; Arm. 7Ϊ/ 'sinew, cord' < *gwhiH-sl-; OPr. … — [de Vaan, s.v. filum, p. 234]

2. fīlum — Lewis & Short

fīlum, i. n. (also filus, i, m., acc. to

Arn. 1, 36 dub., plur.
I heterocl., fili, Luc. 6, 460) [for figlum, v. figo], a thread of any thing woven (of linen or woolen cloth, a cobweb, etc.).
I Lit., Varr. L. L. 5, § 113 Müll.; Enn. ap. Non. 116, 6 (Ann. v. 259 ed. Vahl.); Verg. A. 6, 30; Ov. A. A. 3, 445; id. M. 4, 36; Mart. 6, 3, 5; Cels. 7, 16: lumen candelae cujus tempero filum, wick, Juv. 3, 287: tenuia aranei, a web, Lucr. 3, 383: tineae, Ov. M. 15, 372.—Poet., of the thread of life spun by the Fates: sororum fila trium, Hor. C. 2, 3, 16; Verg. A. 10, 815; Ov. M. 2, 654; id. Tr. 5, 10, 45; Sil. 4, 28; Mart. 10, 5, 10 al.— Prov.: pendere filo (tenui), to hang by a thread, for to be in great danger: hac noctu filo pendebit Etruria tota, Enn. ap. Macr. S. 1, 4, § 18 (Ann. v. 153 ed. Vahl.): omnia sunt hominum tenui pendentia filo, Ov. P. 4, 3, 35; Val. Max. 6, 4, 1.—
2 In partic., the fillet of wool wound round the upper part of the flamen's cap, similar to the ste/mma of the Greeks; hence, in gen., a priest's fillet: APICVLVM, filum, quo flamines velatum apicem gerunt, Paul. ex Fest. p. 23 Müll.: legatus capite velato filo (lanae velamen est), Audi, Juppiter, inquit, etc., Liv. 1, 32, 6: filo velatus, Tib. 1, 5, 15.—
B Transf. (mostly poet. and in post-Aug. prose).
1 Of any thing slender and drawn out like a thread, a string, cord, filament, fibre: tractat inauratae consona fila lyrae, the strings, Ov. Am. 1, 8, 60; so, lyrae, id. M. 5, 118: sonantia, id. ib. 10, 89: croci, i. e. the stamen, id. F. 1, 342: foliorum exilitas usque in fila attenuata, Plin. 21, 6, 16, § 30; 11, 15, 15, § 39. —
2 Plur., shreds, slices, remnants: fila sectivi porri, Juv. 14, 133: porris fila resecta suis, Mart. 11, 52: fila Tarentini graviter redolentia porri edisti, id. 13, 18.—
3 I. q. crassitudo, the density, compactness, compact shape, or, in gen., contour, form, shape of an object: forma quoque hinc solis debet filumque videri, Lucr. 5, 571, v. Lachm. ad h. 1.; cf. id. 5, 581; 2, 341; 4, 88: mulieris, Plaut. Merc. 4, 4, 15: corporis, Varr. L. L. 10, § 4 Müll.; Gell. 1, 9, 2; Amm. 14, 11, 28: forma atque filo virginali, id. 14, 4, 2: ingeniosus est et bono filo, Petr. 46.—
II Trop. (cf. the preced. no.), of speech, texture, sort, quality, nature, style (class.): ego hospiti veteri et amico munusculum mittere (volui) levidense, crasso filo, cujusmodi ipsius solent esse munera, i. e. of coarse texture, Cic. Fam. 9, 12, 2; cf.: argumentandi tenue filum, id. Or. 36, 124: tenui deducta poëmata filo, Hor. Ep. 2, 1, 225; cf.: gracili connectere carmina filo, Col. poët. 10, 227: paulo uberiore filo, Cic. de Or. 2, 22, 93: orationis, id. ib. 3, 26, 103: aliud quoddam filum orationis tuae (= oratio uberior), id. Lael. 7, 25.

In the wild

6 of 170 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. filum (scan p. 234; entry #575). Root candidates: *gwhiH-, *gii-, *gi-.
  • Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. filum (scan p. 259; entry #4027).

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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.