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-ensis. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
-ensis, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
-ensis in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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Latin
Etymology
Unknown. Various theories have been put forward:
- Hermann Gähwiler (1962), building on a suggestion by Manu Leumann, proposes a borrowing from Etruscan on the basis that its earliest attested non-toponymic use is in the term ātriēnsis, and the Roman ātrium was an Etruscan import. A similar suffix is attested in Etruscan patronymics.
- Paavo Castrén (1981) rejects the relevance of ātriēnsis, viewing it as a later development. On the basis of various ancient, then-extinct peoples of Latium with names in -ēnsēs mentioned by Pliny the Elder, Castrén situates the emergence of the suffix in the late Proto-Villanovan period, perhaps as a borrowing from another Italic language.
- Chantal Kircher-Durand (1983) suggests a derivation from Proto-Indo-European *-went-ti (< *-wénts, *-tis), but considers Gähwiler’s thesis plausible.
- A. Zimmermann (1921) suggests a lost cognate of Ancient Greek ἐνς (ens), variant of εἰς (eis) (< Proto-Indo-European *h₁én) + -ī.
Pronunciation
Suffix
-ēnsis (neuter -ēnse); third-declension two-termination suffix
- Of or from .
Usage notes
The suffix -ēnsis is added to a toponym (especially the name of a town) or to a topographical name, in order to form an adjective.
- Examples:
- Eborācum (“York”) + -ēnsis → eborācēnsis (“of or from York”)
- castra (“camp”) + -ēnsis → castrēnsis (“of the camp”)
Declension
Third-declension two-termination adjective.
Derived terms
Descendants
See also
References
- ^ Gähwiler, Hermann (1962) Das lateinische Suffix -ensis (in German), pages 84–85
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Kircher-Durand, Chantal (2002) “Les dérivés en -ensis”, in Chantal Kircher-Durand, editor, Grammaire fondamentale du latin (in French), volume 9, Création lexicale: la formation des noms par dérivation suffixale, page 191
- ^ Castrén, Paavo (1981) “Von populi Albenses bis cives Campanienses. Anmerkungen zur Frühgeschichte des lateinischen Suffixes -ensis”, in Arctos: Acta Philologica Fennica (in German), volume 15, pages 9–12
- ^ Kircher-Durand, Chantal (1983) “Les noms latins en -ensis”, in Documents LAMA (in French), volume 8, Centre de recherches comparatives sur les langues de la Méditerranée ancienne, pages 248–51