The corpus record — Latin

urbs

city

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

Where it lives

De Herediolo 3 · 134.53/10k
Ab Urbe Condita, books 8-10 - 16s 1 · 125/10k
Ab Urbe Condita, books 8-10 - 13s 2 · 117.65/10k
Ordo Urbium Nobilium 10 · 95.6/10k
Ab urbe condita, books 1-5 - 5 147 · 91.46/10k
In L. Catilinam 93 · 74.07/10k
Ab Urbe Condita, books 26-27 - 26 124 · 73.29/10k
Ausonius 1 · 69.44/10k
Carmen Saeculare 2 · 64.72/10k
Ab urbe condita, books 21-25 - 24 88 · 62.21/10k
Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32 - 31 75 · 59.34/10k
Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32 - 32 62 · 58.18/10k

Densest 12 of 316 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. urbs — de Vaan

urbs 'city' [f. i] (Lex XII+) Derivatives: urbanus 'of the city7 (P1.+). Pit. *worf-(i-) (> urbs), *werfia- (> uerfale). It. cognates: U. uerfale 'area for taking auspices' [loc. or abl.sg.?] < *werf-ali- [n.]. PIE *u(o)rbh-(i-) 'enclosure'. IE cognates: Hit. uarpa- [n.] 'enclosure7, uarpae" 'to suppress, conquer' < *uorP-o-; ToA warpi, ToB werwiye 'garden7 < *uorP-o-, ToA — [de Vaan, s.v. urbs, p. 657]

2. urbs — Lewis & Short

urbs, urbis (f.Sanscr. vardh-, to make strong; cf. Pers. vard-ana, city,

dat. VRBEI, Corp. Inscr. Lat. 206),

I a walled town, a city.

I Lit.

1 In gen.: hi coetus sedem primum certo loco domiciliorum causā constituerunt: quam cum locis manuque sepsissent, ejusmodi conjunctionem tectorum oppidum vel urbem appellaverunt, delubris distinctam spatiisque communibus, Cic. Rep. 1, 26, 41; cf.: post ea qui fiebat orbis, urbis principium, Varr. L. L. 5, § 143 Müll.: urbs dicitur ab orbe, quod antiquae civitates in orbem flebant, id. ap. Serv. Verg. A. 1, 12: interea Aeneas urbem designat aratro, Verg. A. 5, 755 Serv.: veni Syracusas, quod ab eā urbe ... quae tamen urbs, etc., Cic. Phil. 1, 3, 7: certabant urbem Romam Remoramne vocarent, Enn. ap. Cic. Div. 1, 48, 107 (Ann. v. 85 Vahl.): arce et urbe sum orba, id. ap. Cic. Tusc. 3, 19, 44 (Trag. v. 114 ib.): urbes magnae et imperiosae, id. Rep. 1, 2, 3: urbs illa praeclara (Syracusae), id. ib. 3, 31, 43: duabus urbibus eversis inimicissimis huic imperio, id. Lael. 3, 11.— Rarely, and mostly poet., with the name of the city in gen.: urbs Patavi, Buthroti, Verg. A. 1, 247; 3, 293: Cassius in oppido Antiochiae cum omni exercitu, Cic. Att. 5, 18, 1.—With adj. prop.: urbs Romana = Roma, Liv. 9, 41, 16; 22, 37, 12; 40, 36, 14; Flor. 1, 13, 21.—Of other cities (rare and post-class.): Lampsacenae urbis salus, Val. Max. 7, 3, ext. 4: in urbe Aquilejensi, Paul. v. S. Ambros. 32: urbs urbium, a metropolis, Flor. 2, 6, 35.—

2 In partic., the city of Rome (like a)/stu, of Athens): postquam Urbis appellationem, etiamsi nomen proprium non adiceretur, Romam tamen accipi sit receptum, Quint. 6, 3, 103; cf. id. 8, 2, 8; 8, 5, 9: hujus urbis condendae principium profectum a Romulo, Cic. Rep. 2, 2, 4; cf. id. ib. 1, 47, 71; 1, 1, 1; 1, 37, 58: (Caesar) maturat ab urbe proficisci, Caes. B. G. 1, 7: de urbe augendā quid sit promulgatum, non intellexi, Cic. Att. 13, 20, 1: conditor urbis (Romulus), Ov. F. 1, 27: (pater) Dextera sacras jaculatus arces Terruit urbem, Hor. C. 1, 2, 4: minatus urbi vincla, id. Epod. 9, 9; called also urbs aeterna, Amm. 14, 6, 1.— Ad urbem esse, to stop at or near Rome; in publicists' lang., of returning generals, who had to remain outside of the city till the Senate decreed them the right of entrance; or of provincial magistrates who were preparing for departure to their provinces, Cic. Verr. 1, 15, 45 Ascon.; 2, 2, 6, § 17; Sall. C. 30, 4; Caes. B. C. 6, 1.—

B Transf., as in Engl.

1 The city, for the citizens (rare; cf. civitas): invadunt urbem somno vinoque sepultam, Verg. A. 2, 265: maesta attonitaque, Juv. 11, 198: bene moratae, Auct. ap. Quint. 8, 6, 24.—

2 The capital city, metropolis (post-class.): si tam vicinum urbi municipium sit, ut, etc., Dig. 39, 2, 4 fin.; Cod. Th. 14, 1, 3.—*

II Trop.: urbem philosophiae, mihi crede, proditis, dum castella defenditis, i. e. the main point, Cic. Div. 2, 16, 37.

3. urbs — Walde–Hofmann

urbs, urbis (Gen. Pl. urbium (vgl. mars.-lat. en urbid]) ,Stadt*, „Hauptstadt“ (insbes. Rom) (seit Cic., Catull, Ov. usw., rom., z. T. verdrängt durch eivitäs und villa); urbänus, -a, -um „von der Stadt“; „fein, witzig, geistreich* (= doreloc; opp. rüsticus) (seit XII. tab., Naev., Enn., Plaut. usw. (Adv. -2 seit Cic.|; urbanitas, -átis f. „Feinheit, Witz“ [= &oreiórrc] seit Cic., Sen. usw); urbicus, -a, -um „von … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. urbs, p. 1746]

In the wild

urbes Livy, Ab urbe condita 3bis.40.10.5
urbem Livy, Ab urbe condita 2.23.27.2
urbes Livy, Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 43-44 - 43 p25
Urbis Statius, Silvae 1.4.39
urbe Juvenal, Saturae 5.16.25
urbe Livy, Ab urbe condita 4.44.17.9

6 of 8,992 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. urbs (scan p. 657; entry #1888). Root candidates: *worf-, *werfia-.
Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. urbs (scan p. 778; entry #12979).
Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. urbs (scan p. 1746; entry #3347).

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.