catena

See also: Catena and catenă

English

Etymology

From Medieval Latin catena, from Latin catēna (“chain”). Doublet of chain.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kəˈtiːnə/

Noun

catena (plural catenas or catenae)

1. A series of related items.
   • 1873, Walter Bagehot, Lombard Street:

     And, on the contrary, there is a whole catena of authorities, beginning with Sir Robert Peel and ending with Mr. Lowe, which say that the Banking Department of the Bank of England is only a Bank like any other bank [...]

2. (soil science) A series of distinct soils arrayed along a slope.
   • 2000, Ewan Anderson, Middle East: Geography and Geopolitics, Routledge, →ISBN, page 55:

     The changes in soil characteristics from the crest to the foot of a slope are together known as a catena.

Derived terms

• catena compound

Related terms

• chain
• catenal
• catenary
• catenative
• concatenate
• concatenation

Translations

series of related items

• Bulgarian: верига (bg) f (veriga)
• Finnish: ketju (fi)
• Portuguese: cadeia (pt) f, série (pt) f

a series of distinct soils arrayed along a slope

• Indonesian: katena
• Portuguese: catena f

Anagrams

• acetan

Interlingua

Noun

catena (plural catenas)

1. chain

Italian

Etymology

From Latin catēna.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kaˈte.na/
• Rhymes: -ena
• Hyphenation: ca‧té‧na

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

catena f (plural catene)

1. chain
2. bond, fetter; subordination, repression
3. tie, cord, bond
4. tether (a rope, cable etc. that holds something in place whilst allowing some movement)

Synonyms

• ordito

Related terms

• catena alimentare
• catenaccio
• catena da neve
• catenaria
• catenella
• incatenare

Further reading

• catena in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Anagrams

• ancate, catane, cenata

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *katesnā, further etymology unknown. Probably connected with caterva (“crowd”) and cassis (“hunting-net”).

Pokorny derives catēna, caterva and cassis from Proto-Indo-European *kat- (“to link or weave together; chain, net”), with casa as another possible cognate.

Martirosyan connects cassis and catēna with Old Armenian ցանց (cʻancʻ, “casting-net”) and derives all from a Mediterranean substrate.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /kaˈteː.na/, [käˈt̪eːnä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /kaˈte.na/, [käˈt̪ɛːnä]

Noun

catēna f (genitive catēnae); first declension

1. chain

Declension

First-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	catēna	catēnae
Genitive	catēnae	catēnārum
Dative	catēnae	catēnīs
Accusative	catēnam	catēnās
Ablative	catēnā	catēnīs
Vocative	catēna	catēnae

Derived terms

• catella
• catēnārius
• catēnātus
• catēnō
• catēnōsus
• catēnula

Descendants

• Eastern Romance
  • >? Aromanian: cãtinã
  • >? Romanian: cătină
• Franco-Provençal: chêna, cheina, chaena, chana
• Italo-Dalmatian
  • Corsican: catena
  • Dalmatian: cataina
  • Old Italian: cadena
    • Italian: catena
    • → French: cadène
    • → Aromanian: cadenã, catinã
  • Sicilian: catina
• Gallo-Italic
  • Emilian: cadèna, cadèina
  • Friulian: cjadene, čhadene
  • Ligurian: caena, chen-a, cheina
  • Lombard: cadena, cajena, caena
    • → Ligurian: cadénn-a
    • → Piedmontese: caden-a
  • Piedmontese: chèina, chen-a
  • Romagnol: cadèina
• Old French: chaeine
  • Middle French: chaisne
    • French: chaîne
  • Norman: caîne
  • Walloon: tchinne
  • → Middle English: cheyne
    • English: chain
    • Scots: cheen, chyne (obsolete chainzie)
• Old Occitan: cadena, cana
  • Catalan: cadena
  • Occitan:

    Auvergnat: chadena, chaina

    Gascon: cadea, caina, cadenha

    Languedocien: cadena

    Limousin: chadena

    Provençal: cadena

    Vivaro-Alpine: chadena, chaina, chaena, cheina

• Rhaeto-Romance
  • Romansch: chadaina, chadagna, cadagna
• Sardinian: cadena, carena, catena
• Venetian: cadéna, caéna
• West Iberian
  • Aragonese: cadena
  • Asturian: cadena
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: cadẽa
    • Galician: cadea, cadeia
    • Portuguese: cadeia, cadea (dialectal)
  • Spanish: cadena (see there for further descendants)

Borrowings

• → Basque: katea
• → Proto-Brythonic: *kaduɨn
  • Breton: chadenn
  • Middle Welsh: cadwyn
    • Welsh: cadwyn
• → Catalan: catena
• → French: catène
• → Portuguese: catena
• → Romanian: catenă
• → Proto-West Germanic: *katinnjā (see there for further descendants)

Further reading

• “catena”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “catena”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• catena 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)
• catena in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[2], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to put some one in irons, chains: in vincula, in catenas conicere aliquem
    
• “catena”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “catena”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin catēna (“chain”). Doublet of cadeia.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /kaˈtẽ.nɐ/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /kaˈtẽ.nɐ/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /kaˈte.na/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /kɐˈte.nɐ/

• Hyphenation: ca‧te‧na

Noun

catena f (plural catenas)

1. (geology) catena (series of distinct soils along a slope)