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The corpus record — Latin

proelium

proelium

battle

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

What it meant

1. proelium — de Vaan

proelium 'battle' [η. ο] (Ρ1.+) Derivatives: proeliare cto engage in battle' (Luc\L+), proeliaris Of battles' (PL+). KHngenschmitt 1980 posits a sound law *oweli > *owili > *oili > -oeli-, for which only the PN Cloelius, Coelius and Boelius are adduced as evidence. Proelium would continue a form *pro-gwe/ol-io~, with cognate forms such as MW ryvel, W. rhyfel 'war* < PCI, *ro-bel-, bel 'hits, strikes', erdifel … — [de Vaan, s.v. proelium, p. 506]

2. proelĭum — Lewis & Short

proelĭum (prael-), ii, n.etym. dub.; perh. for provilium, pro-dvilium; cf. duellum (bellum),

I a battle, combat (class.; syn.: pugna, dimicatio).
I Lit.: induperatores pugnare ac proelia obire, Lucr. 4, 967: non proeliis, neque acie bellum gerere, Sall. J. 54, 5: exitus proeliorum, Cic. Fam. 6, 4, 1: proelium facere, to engage, id. Tusc. 4, 19, 43: inire, Liv. 25, 38: committere cum aliquo, Cic. Div. 1, 35, 77: redintegrare, Caes. B. G. 1, 25: restituere, id. ib. 53: conficere, Hirt. B. G. 8, 28: miscere, Prop. 4 (5), 1, 28. proelio dimicare cum hoste, Cic. N. D. 2, 2, 6: proeliis decertare, id. Prov. Cons. 13, 33: proelium sumere, to join battle, engage, Tac. H. 2, 42: singulare, single combat, Aus. Per. Iliad. 7: Punica passi proelia, the wars with Carthage, Juv. 14, 162.—
B Transf.
1 Of animals (poet.): proelia dant cervi, Verg. G. 3, 265: (taurorum), id. ib. 3, 220; cf. Hor. C. 3, 20, 4; 3, 13, 5.—
2 Of inanimate subjects (poet.): ventorum proelia, Verg. G. 1, 318.—
3 A warrior: Colchis flagrantes adamantina sub juga tauros Egit et armigera proelia sevit humo, Prop. 3, 11 (4, 10), 10: trepidum si Martis operti agricolam infandis condentem proelia sulcis expediam, Stat. Th. 1, 8.—
II Trop.
A Contest, strife (class.): proelia te meā causā sustinere, Cic. Fam. 9, 11, 2: committere proelia voce, Ov. M. 5, 307; id. Am. 1, 8, 96.—Humorously, of a struggle with food and drink: in eo uterque proelio potabimus, Plaut. Men. 1, 3, 3: sed quid cessamus proelium committere? id. Pers. 1, 3, 32.—
B In mal. part., Prop. 2, 1, 45: veneris, App. M. 5, p. 168, 6.

3. proelium — Walde–Hofmann

proelium, -; n. „Treffen, Gefecht, Kampf* (seit Énn., ebenso proelio [-or]; proeliäris „zum Kampf gehörig“ seit Plt, [-alís seit {ul. Val], proeliätor seit Val. Max., proeliätiö seit lul Val): Et. unsicher; auch ursprgl. Vokalismus unklar. Sehr zweifelhaft OsthoffBoisacq Mél. Pedersen 257 fl.: aus *pro-oiliom zu aksl. voj, vojins „Krieger“, vojevoda „Heerführer“ (vgl ahd. herizogo ds.), taz-vits ,Gewinn*, lett. … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. proelium, p. 1275]

In the wild

6 of 2,110 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. proelium (scan p. 506; entry #1402).
  • Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. proelium (scan p. 562; entry #9220).
  • Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. proelium (scan p. 1275; entry #2137).

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.