filius

Latin

Alternative forms

• fīlios (Old Latin)

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

• Audio (Classical)

  (file)

Noun

fīlius m (genitive fīliī or fīlī, feminine fīlia); second declension

1. a son

   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

• Eastern Romance
  • Aromanian: hilj, hiljiu, hilju
  • Istro-Romanian: fiľ
  • Megleno-Romanian: il'u
  • Romanian: fiu
• Gallo-Italic
  • Ligurian: fìggio
  • Piedmontese: fieul, fij
• Italo-Dalmatian
  • Corsican: figliu
  • Dalmatian: felj
  • Istriot: feîo, fèio
  • Italian: figlio
  • Sicilian: figghiu
• 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)
• Old Occitan: filh
  • Catalan: fill
  • Occitan: filh, fiu, hilh
• Rhaeto-Romance
  • Friulian: fi
  • Romansch: figl, fegl
• Sardinian:

  Campidanese: fillu

  Logudorese: fizu, figiu

• Venetian: fio
• West Iberian
  • Extremaduran: iju
  • Mozarabic: فيليه‎ (filyo)
  • Navarro-Aragonese: [Term?]
    • Aragonese: fillo
  • Old Leonese: [Term?]
    • Asturian: fíu
    • Leonese: fiyu
    • Mirandese: filho
  • Old Portuguese: fillo
    • Fala: fillu
    • Galician: fillo
    • Portuguese: filho
      • Guinea-Bissau Creole: fidju
      • Indo-Portuguese: filh
      • Kabuverdianu: fidju
  • Old Spanish: fijo
    • Ladino:

      Hebrew: איז׳ו‎

      Latin: ijo

    • Spanish: hijo
      • Papiamentu: yiu
      • → Tagalog: iho

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