orbis

See also: orbiș

Latin

Etymology

Of uncertain origin. May stem from Proto-Indo-European *h₃erbʰis (“circle, orb”), from the root *h₃erbʰ- (“to turn”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈɔr.bɪs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈɔr.bis]

Noun

orbis m (genitive orbis); third declension

1. circle, ring
2. of things that return at a certain period of time, a rotation, round, circuit
3. an orb (sphere)
4. a country, territory or region
5. a disc or disc-shaped object
7. the Earth, the world, the globe (often written as orbis terrarum)

   totus orbis terrarum

   the whole wide world

   • 63 BCE, Cicero, In Catilinam orationes 1.9:

     Hīc, hīc sunt in nostrō numerō, Patrēs Cōnscrīptī — in hōc orbis terrae sānctissimō gravissimōque cōnsiliō — quī dē nostrō omnium interitū, quī dē huius urbis atque adeō dē orbis terrārum exitiō cōgitent!

     Here, here they are among our assembly, Conscript Fathers — in this, the most sacred and most solemn council of every land — those who plan the death of us all, who plot the destruction of this city, and even the ruin of the whole world!
     (Literally, “of the sphere of land(s).”)

   • c. 52 BCE, Julius Caesar, Commentarii de bello Gallico VII.29:

     cuius consensui ne orbis quidem terrarum possit obsistere

     the union of which not even the whole world could withstand

   • 8 CE, Ovidius, Metamorphoses 1.5–7:

     Ante mare et terrās et quod tegit omnia caelum
     ūnus erat tōtō nātūrae vultus in orbe,
     quem dīxēre chaos: […]

     Before the sea and the lands and the sky that covers over all things,
     there was one face of nature in the whole world,
     which they called chaos: […]

Declension

Third-declension noun (i-stem, ablative singular in -e or occasionally -ī).

	singular	plural
nominative	orbis	orbēs
genitive	orbis	orbium
dative	orbī	orbibus
accusative	orbem	orbēs orbīs
ablative	orbe orbī	orbibus
vocative	orbis	orbēs

Synonyms

• (circle): circus, circulus

Derived terms

• orbita

Descendants

• ⇒? Vulgar Latin: orbellus
  • Italo-Romance:
    • Italian: orbello

Borrowings:

• → English: orb
• → French: orbe
• → Italian: orbe
• → Japanese: オービス
• → Portuguese: orbe
• → Spanish: orbe

References

• “orbis”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “orbis”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "orbis", 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)
• “orbis”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • the earth; the glob: orbis terrae, terrarum
    
  • the horizon: orbis finiens (Div. 2. 44. 92)
    
  • the milky way: orbis lacteus
    
  • the zodiac: orbis signifer
    
  • a zone: orbis, pars (terrae), cingulus
    
  • the temperate zone: orbis medius
    
  • the empire reaches to the ends of the world: imperium orbis terrarum terminis definitur
    
  • to form a square: orbem facere (Sall. Iug. 97. 5)
    
  • to form a square: in orbem consistere
    
• “orbis”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• orbis in Enrico Olivetti, editor (2003-2026), Dizionario Latino, Olivetti Media Communication
• De Vaan, Michiel (2008), “orbis”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 432-433