colonus

See also: Colonus

English

Etymology

From Latin colōnus.

Noun

colonus (plural coloni)

1. (historical) A sharecropping tenant farmer of the late Roman Empire and Early Middle Ages.

Anagrams

• Coulons, Coulson

Latin

Etymology

Uncertain. Perhaps from the ending of agricola and modelled on patrōnus. Alternatively, from the affixation of *-no- to *kʷolh₁-oh₁, the instrumental singular of a noun *kʷólh₁-o-. De Vaan posits, albeit uncertainly, a pre-form Proto-Italic *kʷelōnos. Ultimately from the root Proto-Indo-European *kʷel-.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [kɔˈɫoː.nʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [koˈlɔː.nus]

Noun

colōnus m (genitive colōnī, feminine colōna); second declension

1. farmer, especially a kind of tenant farmer or sharecropper; husbandman; tiller of the soil
   • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 1.677–678:

     frūgibus immēnsīs avidōs satiāte colōnōs,
     ut capiant cultūs praemia digna suī.

     Satisfy eager farmers with abundant crops,
     that they may reap rewards worthy of their labors.

2. colonist, colonial, inhabitant

   Colonos novos ascribere.

   To appoint new inhabitants.

Declension

Second-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	colōnus	colōnī
genitive	colōnī	colōnōrum
dative	colōnō	colōnīs
accusative	colōnum	colōnōs
ablative	colōnō	colōnīs
vocative	colōne	colōnī

Synonyms

• (farmer): agricola, arātor

Derived terms

• colōna
• colōnātus
• colōnia
• colōnicus

Related terms

• agricola
• colō
• colōnārius
• colōniārius
• culta
• cultē
• cultiō
• cultor
• cultrīx
• cultūra
• cultus

Descendants

• Catalan: colon
• French: colon
• Italian: colono
• Portuguese: colono
• Sicilian: culunu
• Spanish: colono

References

• “colonus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “colonus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "colonus", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “colonus”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “colonus”, in The Perseus Project (1999), Perseus Encyclopedia‎
• “colonus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• De Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 125