filius

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Latin

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *fīlios, *feilios (the Latin can reflect either one, but Faliscan 𐌅𐌉𐌋𐌄𐌏 (fīleo, hīleo), if original and not modeled on Latin fīlius, would point to *fīl-), from earlier *θeilios, from *dʰeh₁i-l-yo-s (sucker), a derivation from the verbal root *dʰeh₁(y)- (to suck).

Related to fellō, fēmina, fētus, Old English delu (nipple, teat), dēon (to suck, suckle), Old Armenian դալ (dal). More at doe.

Pronunciation

Noun

fīlius m (genitive fīliī or fīlī, feminine fīlia); second declension

  1. a son
    Synonyms: līber, nātus
    Ubi est noster filius?
    Where is our son?
    • Caecilius Statius (died ca. 168 BC); in: Scaenicae romanorum poesis fragmenta secundis curis. Volumen II. Comicorum fragmenta. – Comicorum romanorum praeter Plautum et Terentium fragmenta secundis curis, edited by Otto Ribbeck, Leipzig, 1873, page 48:
      Fílius meus ín me incedit sat hilará schema.
    • Caecilius Statius (died ca. 168 BC); in: Remains of Old Latin, edited and translated by E. H. Warmington, vol. I, 1935, page 496f.:
      Priscianus, ap. G.L., II, 199, 17, K: 'Schema' pro 'schemate.' . . . Caecilius in Hypobolimaeo–
      . . . filius . . . in me incedit satis
      hilara schema.
      Aged peasant, guardian of the changeling Chaerestratus:
      Priscianus: 'Schema' for 'schemate.' . . . Caecilius in The Changeling
      Here comes my son towards me in merry shape.
  2. (by extension) any male descendant
  3. (in the plural) children

Declension

Second-declension noun.

singular plural
nominative fīlius fīliī
genitive fīliī
fīlī1
fīliōrum
dative fīliō fīliīs
accusative fīlium fīliōs
ablative fīliō fīliīs
vocative fīlī fīliī

1Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Synonyms

Derived terms

Descendants

References

  • filius”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • filius”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • filius 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)
  • filius in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.