filius

Latin

Etymology

From Old Latin fīlius, fīlios, from Proto-Italic *feiljos (compare Faliscan hileo), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁ylios (“sucker”), a derivation from the verbal root *dʰeh₁(y)- (“to suck”). Related to fēmina, fellō, fētus, Old English delu (“nipple, teat”), dēon (“to suck, suckle”), Old Armenian դալ (dal). More at doe.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈfiː.li.us/, [ˈfiː.li.ʊs]

• Audio (Classical)

  (file)

Noun

fīlius m (genitive fīliī); second declension

1. a son

   Ubi est noster filius?

   Where is our son?

2. (by extension) any male descendant
3. (in the plural) children

Inflection

Second declension.

Case	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

• nātus

Derived terms

• affīliō
• fīlia
• fīliālis
• fīliaster
• fīlietās
• fīliolus
• prōfīlius (Mediaeval Latin)

Descendants

• Corsican: figliu
• Dalmatian: felj
• Eastern Romance:
  • Aromanian: hilj, hiljiu, hilju
  • Istro-Romanian: fiľ
  • Megleno-Romanian: il'u
  • Romanian: fiu
• Emilian: fiôl
• Istriot: feîo, fèio
• Italian: figlio
• Ligurian: fìggio
• Mozarabic: فيليه‎ (filyo)
• Navarro-Aragonese:
  • Aragonese: fillo
• Old French: fil, fis, fix, fiz
  • French: fils
  • Norman: fils
  • → English: Fitz-
• Old Leonese:
  • Asturian: fíu
  • Extremaduran: iju
  • Leonese: fiyu
  • Mirandese: filho
• Old Portuguese: fillo
  • Fala: fillu
  • Galician: fillo
  • Portuguese: filho
    • Indo-Portuguese: filh
    • Kabuverdianu: fidju
• Old Occitan: filh
  • Catalan: fill
  • Occitan: filh
• Old Spanish: fijo
  • Ladino:
    • Hebrew: איז׳ו‎
    • Latin: ijo
  • Spanish: hijo
    • Papiamentu: yiu
    • → Tagalog: iho
• Rhaeto-Romance:
  • Friulian: fi
  • Romansch: figl, fegl
• Sardinian: fillu, fizu, figiu
• Sicilian: figghiu
• Venetian: fiol, fio, fióło
• ⇒ Vulgar Latin: *fīliānus
  • Eastern Romance:
    • Romanian: fin
  • → Albanian: fijan

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, 1883–1887)
• filius in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

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Old Latin

Etymology

From older fīlios.

Noun

fīlius m

1. a 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 [éccum] 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.