cohors

Latin

Alternative forms

• cōrs

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *kom +‎ *horti-, the latter a ti-derivative of what is likely the same root underlying *hortos (“enclosure”). By surface analysis, co- +‎ -hors.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈko.(ɦ)ɔrs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkɔː.ors]

Noun

cohors f (genitive cohortis); third declension

1. a court
2. a farmyard or enclosure
   • 8 CE, Ovidius, Fasti 4.703–704:

     is capit extrēmī volpem convalle salictī;
     abstulerat multās illa cohortīs avēs.

     He catches a vixen in a ravine at the end of a willow grove;
     she had carried off many farmyard birds.

3. a retinue or escort
4. a circle or crowd
5. a cohort; tenth part of a legion
6. a band or armed force
7. a ship's crew
8. a bodyguard
9. a military unit of 500 men

Declension

Third-declension noun (i-stem).

	singular	plural
nominative	cohors	cohortēs
genitive	cohortis	cohortium
dative	cohortī	cohortibus
accusative	cohortem	cohortēs cohortīs
ablative	cohorte	cohortibus
vocative	cohors	cohortēs

Derived terms

• cōrtīna

Descendants

• ⇒ Late Latin: cōrs (see there for further descendants)

Borrowings:

• → Byzantine Greek: κοόρτης (koórtēs), κοόρτη (koórtē), κόρτη (kórtē), κόρτης (kórtēs), κώρτη (kṓrtē), κώρτης (kṓrtēs), χόρτη (khórtē), χώρτη (khṓrtē)
  • → Arabic: شُرْطَة (šurṭa)
    • → Classical Syriac: ܫܘܽܪܛܳܐ (šurṭā), ܫܽܪܛܳܐ (šurṭā)
  • → Romanian: cort
• → Catalan: cohort
• → English: cohort
• → French: cohorte
• → Friulian: coorte
• → German: Kohorte
• → Galician: cohorte
• → Italian: coorte
• → Occitan: coòrta
• → Portuguese: coorte
• → Romanian: cohortă
• → Russian: кого́рта (kogórta)
• → Spanish: cohorte
• → Ukrainian: кого́рта (kohórta)

Further reading

• “cohors”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “cohors”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "cohors", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “cohors”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • the cohort on guard-duty: cohors, quae in statione est
    
• “cohors”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “cohors”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin