familia
famil-ia uit.-lat. 'Haushalt, Diener und Sklaven des Haushalt'; ‘Gesinde, Sklavenschaft’,
Aus dem uital. *fameljā „des Hauses → Haushalt“, aus dem früheren *θameljā.
Angesichts der semantischen Verschiebung, die in den Verwandten dargestellt wird, ist famulus „Diener, Sklave“ (mit Oscan 𐌚𐌀𐌌𐌄𐌋 (famel, „Unterwürfig“)) wahrscheinlich eine Rückbildung davon und nicht umgekehrt. Von uig. *dʰh₁-m-eló-m „Fundament“, von *dʰeh₁- „tun, stellen, platzieren“. Verwandt mit Sanskrit धामन् (dhāman, „Ordnung; Wohnort, Tempel; Familie“), Altgriechisch θεμέλιος themélios, „des Fundaments“, θέμις (thémis, „Gerechtigkeit, Gesetz“).
Noun
familia f (genitive familiae); first declension
- a household (all persons subject to the control of one man (whether relations, freedmen or slaves))
- the slaves of a household, servants
- a group of slaves stationed in one place; a brigade, gang (used for some purpose)
- one's personal retinue
- a family, kin (a group of people closely related to one another) [ synonym ▲][ quotations ▼]
- Synonym: domus
- an intellectual school (e.g., of philosophy) [ synonym ▲]
- Synonym: domus
- (law) an estate (sometimes distinct from pecūnia and possibly restricted to rēs mancipī)
Usage notes
According to Richard Saller, “[f]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]
Pronunciation
- (Classical) IPA(key): /faˈmi.li.a/, [fäˈmɪlʲiä]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /faˈmi.li.a/, [fäˈmiːliä]
Declension
First-declension noun.
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | familia | familiae |
| Genitive | familiae | familiārum |
| Dative | familiae | familiīs |
| Accusative | familiam | familiās |
| Ablative | familiā | familiīs |
| Vocative | familia | familiae |
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.