LOGOI

The corpus record — Latin

orbis

orbis

disc, flat round object, circle

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

What it meant

1. orbis — de Vaan

orbis 'disc, flat round object, circle' [m. i] (Cato+; abl.sg. orbi) Derivatives: orbiculus 'small disc' (Cato+), orbiculatus name of a pear (Varro); — [de Vaan, s.v. orbis, p. 446]

2. orbis — Lewis & Short

orbis, is (

nom. orbs, Ven. Carm. 8, 5. —
I Abl. regul. orbe; but orbi, Lucr. 5, 74: ex orbi, Varr. R. R. 3, 5, 16; Rutil. ap. Charis. p. 112 P.: orbi terrae, in the meaning in the world, Cic. Sest. 30, 66; so, orbi terrarum, Cic. Verr. 2, 4, 38, § 82 Halm; id. Dom. 10, 24; id. Fragm. ap. Charis. p. 112 P.), m. etym. dub.; perh. akin to Sanscr. dhvar, bend, twist, any thing of a circular shape, a ring, round surface, disk, hoop, orbit, orb, a circle (class.; cf.: circus, circulus, gyrus, spira).
I Lit.: in orbem torquere, Cic. Univ. 7: curvare aliquid in orbem, Ov. M. 2, 715: certumque equitavit in orbem, id. ib. 12, 468.—Of a ring: et digitum justo commodus orbe teras, fit exactly, Ov. Am. 2, 15, 6: unionum, roundness, Plin. 9, 35, 56, § 113.—Of a circle formed by men: ut in orbem consisterent, place themselves in a circle, form a circle, Caes. B. G. 5, 33: cum illi, orbe facto, se defenderent, id. ib. 4, 37: orbem volventes suos increpans, Liv. 4, 28: in orbem pugnare, id. 28, 22, 15: in orbem sese stantibus equis defendere, id. 28, 33, 15: stella (fae/qwn) eundem duodecim signorum orbem annis duodecim conficit, the zodiac, Cic. N. D. 2, 20, 52: lacteus, the Milky Way, id. Rep. 6, 16, 16.—Of the orbit of a heavenly body: sidera circulos suos orbesque conficiunt, Cic. Rep. 6, 15, 15.—Of a serpent, the windings, coils: immensis orbibus angues Incumbunt pelago, Verg. A. 2, 204.—Of a circular surface or disk: orbis mensae, a round table-top, Ov. H. 17, 87; cf. Juv. 11, 122.—Also, simply orbes, a round table, Mart. 2, 43; Juv. 1, 137.—Of a quoit or discus: ictus ab orbe, Ov. Ib. 590.—Of the scale of a balance: instabilis natat alterno depressior orbe, Tib. 4, 1, 44.—Of a mirror: addidit et nitidum sacratis crinibus orbem, Mart. 9, 18, 5.—Of a shield: illa (hasta) per orbem Aere cavum triplici ... Transiit, Verg. A. 10, 783; Petr. 89.—Of a mosaic pavement of rounded pieces of marble, Juv. 11, 175.—Of a scale, one side of a balance, Tib. 4, 1, 44.—Of the millstones of an oil-mill, Cato, R. R. 22.—Of the wooden disk placed over olives in pressing them, Cato, R. R. 18.—Of the hoop or tire of a wheel: rotarum orbes circumacti, Plin. 8, 16, 19, § 52.—Of the wheel itself: undaque jam tergo ferratos sustinet orbes, Verg. G. 3, 361.—Hence, the wheel of fortune, Tib. 1, 5, 70; Ov. Tr. 5, 8, 7; id. P. 2, 3, 56.—Of the socket of the eye: inanem luminis orbem, Ov. M. 14, 200.—Of the eye itself: gemino lumen ab orbe venit, Ov. Am. 1, 8, 16: ardentes oculorum orbes ad moenia torsit, Verg. A. 12, 670.—Of the sun's disk or orb: lucidus orbis, Verg. G. 1, 459.—Of the moon's disk or orb: quater junctis implevit cornibus orbem Luna, quater plenum tenuata retexuit orbem, Ov. M. 7, 530.—Of the circle of the world, the world, the universe: Juppiter arce suā totum cum spectet in orbem, Ov. F. 1, 85: renatus, the new-born day, Sil. 5, 56: terrarum or terrae, the circle or orb of the earth, the world (since the ancients regarded the earth as a circular plane or disk): permittitur infinita potestas orbis terrarum, Cic. Agr. 2, 13, 33: ager Campanus orbis terrae pulcherrimus, id. ib. 2, 28, 76; id. Sest. 30, 66: cunctus ob Italiam terrarum clauditur orbis? Verg. A. 1, 233; cf. id. ib. 7, 224.—Also, simply orbis (so mostly poet.): hic, ubi nunc Roma est orbis caput, arbor et herbae, Ov. F. 5, 93: unus, Juv. 10, 168; 4, 148: universus, Vulg. Luc. 2, 1; id. Apoc. 12, 9.—Hence, a country, region, territory: Eoo dives ab orbe redit, the East, Ov. F. 3, 466: Assyrius, Juv. 2, 108: noster, Plin. 12, 12, 26, § 45.—A kind of fish, Plin. 32, 2, 5, § 14 Sillig; cf. Isid. Orig. 12, 6, 6.—
II Trop., a circle.
A Of things that return at a certain period of time, a rotation, round, circuit: ut idem in singulos annos orbis volveretur, Liv. 3, 10: insigne regium in orbem per omnes iret, in rotation, id. 3, 36: orbis hic in re publicā est conversus, the circle of political changes, Cic. Att. 2, 9, 1.—
B Orbis doctrinae, an encyclopœdia: orbis ille doctrinae quam Graeci e)gku/klion paidei/an vocant, Quint. 1, 10, 1.—
C Of speech, a rounding off, roundness, rotundity: circuitum, et quasi orbem verborum conficere, Cic. de Or. 3, 51, 198: orationis, id. Or. 71, 234: historia non tam finitos numeros quam orbem quendam contextumque desiderat, Quint. 9, 4, 129.—
D A circle or cycle of thought: sententiae Pyrrhonis in hunc orbem quem circumscripsimus, incidere non possunt, Cic. Fin. 5, 8, 23; cf.: circa vilem patulumque orbem, Hor. A. P. 132.—
E Esp.: in orbem ire, to go the rounds, go around: quinque dierum spatio finiebatur imperium ac per omnes in orbem ibant, in turn, Liv. 1, 17, 6; 3, 36, 3.

3. orbis — Walde–Hofmann

orbis (spät orbs Ven. Fort), -ís m, ,Rundung; Kreis (o. terrae, 0. lacteus); Zirkel“ (seit Cato, rom., ebenso orbiculus, -3 m. „kleiner Kreis* seit Cato [orbiculäta mala seit Varro, orbicla ds, Diosc., -Atim seit Plin. nat., -&rís = ‘cyclamen’ seit Ps. Apul, -ätur : xuxketeı Gl.]; spätl. , Nagelgeschwür^ und [rom.] „Gerstenkorn im Auge“ [Bed. Lw. nach gr. nrepbyiov, Merland Symb. Osl. 10, 108; vgl. auch orbicaIus … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. orbis, p. 1125]

In the wild

6 of 1,819 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. orbis (scan p. 446; entry #1215).
  • Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. orbis (scan p. 490; entry #7938).
  • Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. orbis (scan pp. 1125-1127; entry #1899). Root candidates: *ureit-, *rebhjo-, *rebh-.

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.