The corpus record — Latin

obsidium1

obsidium1 · n

a siege, investment, blockade

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

Where it lives

Miles Gloriosus 2 · 1.58/10k
Historiae 8 · 1.55/10k
Res Gestae 16 · 1.25/10k
Bacchides 1 · 1.01/10k
Annales 8 · 0.9/10k
Epitome Rerum Romanorum 2 · 0.76/10k
Res Rustica, Books I-IX 2 · 0.25/10k
Noctes Atticae 1 · 0.09/10k

What it meant

1. obsĭdĭum — Lewis & Short

obsĭdĭum, ĭi, n.obsideo,

I a siege, investment, blockade (mostly ante-class. and post-Aug. for obsidio; not in Cic. or Cæs.; but cf. obsidio).

I Lit.: obsidium dictum ab obsidendo, quominus hostis egredi posset inde, Varr. L. L. 5, § 90 Müll.: obsidium, tam quam praesidium, subsidium, recte dicitur, Paul. ex Fest. p. 193 Müll.: saevo obsidio premere aliquem, Enn. ap. Non. 216, 29 (Ann. v. 28 Vahl.): obsidium facere Ilio, Plaut. Bacch. 4, 9, 24: obsidio circumdare, Tac. A. 13, 41: obsidium urgere, id. H. 4, 28; Flor. 4, 4, 4; Gell. 15, 31, 1; Amm. 20, 7, 3: ad liberandum Mogontiaci obsidium, Tac. H. 4, 37.—

II Trop.

A A waylaying, an ambush: obsidia hominum aut insidiosorum animalium, Col. 8, 2, 7.—

B Attention, foresight: curatoris, Col. 9, 9, 1; cf. obsidio.—

C Danger: tuo tergo obsidium adesse, Plaut. Mil. 2, 2, 64.

2. obsĭdĭum — Lewis & Short

obsĭdĭum, ĭi, n.obses,

I the condition of a hostage, hostageship (Tacitean): Meherdates obsidio nobis datus, Tac. A. 11, 10.

In the wild

obsidium Ammianus Marcellinus, Res Gestae 16.4.2
obsidiis Ammianus Marcellinus, Res Gestae 18.6.3
obsidium Ammianus Marcellinus, Res Gestae 21.12.16
obsidium Tacitus, Historiae 4.36
obsidia Tacitus, Annales 3.p21
obsidiumque Tacitus, Historiae 4.60

6 of 40 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. obsidium (scan p. 634; entry #10465).

Downloads

Word record (JSON)·Concordance (CSV)·Frequencies (CSV)·Cite (BibTeX)

CC BY 4.0 with receipt attribution — every file carries its license line. What is exportable

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.