filius

Latin

Alternative forms

• fīlios (Old Latin)
• F (Abbreviation)

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *fīlios, *feilios (the Latin can reflect either one, but Faliscan fīleo, hīleo points to *fīl-), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁ylios (“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

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈfiː.li.us/, [ˈfiːlʲiʊs̠]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈfi.li.us/, [ˈfiːlius]

• Audio (Classical)

  (file)

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 [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.

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

Declension

Second-declension noun.

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

• Balkan Romance:
  • Aromanian: hilj, hiljiu, hilju
  • Istro-Romanian: fiľ
  • Megleno-Romanian: il'u
  • Romanian: fiu
• Dalmatian:
  • felj
• Italo-Romance:
  • Corsican: figliu
  • Italian: figlio
  • Sicilian: figghiu
• Padanian:
  • Friulian: fi
  • Istriot: feîo, fèio
  • Ligurian: fìggio
  • Piedmontese: fieul, fij
  • Romansch: figl, fegl
  • Venetian: fio
• Northern Gallo-Romance:
  • Old French: fil
    • Bourguignon: fi
    • Walloon: fi
    • ⇒ Old French: filz, fils, fis, fitz, fiz (nominative singular)
      • Middle French: filz
        • French: fils
      • Norman: fils, fis
      • → English: Fitz- (via Anglo-Norman fitz)
• Southern Gallo-Romance:
  • Catalan: fill
  • Old Occitan: filh
    • Occitan: filh, fiu, hilh
• Ibero-Romance:
  • Aragonese: fillo
  • Extremaduran: iju
  • Mozarabic: פליו‎ (flyw)
  • Old Leonese:
    • Asturian: fíu
    • Leonese: fiyu
    • Mirandese: filho
  • Old Portuguese: fillo
    • Fala: fillu
    • Galician: fillo
    • Portuguese: filho (see there for further descendants)
  • Old Spanish: fijo
    • Ladino:

      Hebrew: איז׳ו‎

      Latin: ijo

    • Spanish: hijo (see there for further descendants)
• Insular Romance:
  • Sardinian:

    Campidanese: fillu

    Logudorese: fizu, figiu

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