Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word familia. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word familia, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say familia in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word familia you have here. The definition of the word familia will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition offamilia, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
2007, Ada I. Engebrigtsen, Exploring Gypsiness, page 117:
Joska's elder brother Phuro was, however, seen as the leader of his familia. As one of the oldest males in the hamlet, with a familia that consisted of sons, bora and sons-in-law, Phuro's position as head of his familia was given by his age and by his authority as father.
(Roman law) The paterfamilias, his legitimate descendants and their wives, all persons adopted into his family and their wives, and all slaves belonging to the household.
1) obsolete *) the accusative corresponds with either the genitive (sg) or nominative (pl) **) the comitative is formed by adding the suffix -ka? or -kä? to the genitive.
In view of the semantic shift illustrated in the cognates, famulus(“servant, slave”) (with Oscan𐌚𐌀𐌌𐌄𐌋(famel, “servile”)) is probably a backformation from it and not the other way around. From Proto-Indo-European*dʰh₁-m-eló-m(“fundament”), from *dʰeh₁-(“to do, put, place”). Cognate with Sanskritधामन्(dhāman, “order; dwelling-place, temple; family”), Ancient Greekθεμέλιος(themélios, “of the foundation”), θέμις(thémis, “justice, law”).
According to Richard Saller, “amilia was never used to mean ‘father, mother and children’ in our sense of ‘family’ today. It did have a technical, legal usage akin to ‘family’, but in common parlance most often meant ‘slave staff’, exclusive of the master's family.... The usual word for ‘family’ in the classical period was domus, which carried the general sense of ‘household’ including domestic slaves.”[1]
The older genitive singular familiās is frequent in the expression pater familiās and the similar expressions with fīlius, māter, and fīlia as the first element.
De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “famulus”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 200
^ Saller, Richard, Slavery and the Roman Family, in Finley, Moses I., ed., Classical Slavery (London: Frank Cass, cloth 1987 & 2000 (same ed.), reprinted 1999 →ISBN, p. 84
Further reading
“familia”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“familia”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
familia 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)
familia in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
a sect, school of thought: schola, disciplina, familia; secta
a theatrical company: familia, grex, caterva histrionum
a band, troupe of gladiators under the management of a lanista: familiagladiatoria (Sest. 64. 134)
“familia”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
“familia”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
^ Harvey, Andrew (2014) “Epenthetic Vowels in Swahili Loanwords”, in Journal of Linguistics and Language in Education, volume 8, number 2, page 38 of 17-45: “origin is more likely to be Pt. "família"”