telum

See also: tělům

Latin

Etymology

Perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teg- (“beam, stake”) (whence tignum).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈteː.lum/, [ˈt̪eːɫ̪ʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈte.lum/, [ˈt̪ɛːlum]

Noun

tēlum n (genitive tēlī); second declension

1. dart, spear, missile
2. weapon, javelin
   • 27 BCE – 25 BCE, Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita 29.4:

     munire urbem, frumentum convehere, tela arma parare

     to strengthen the defences of the city, to accumulate stores of corn, to prepare a supply of weapons and armour

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	tēlum	tēla
Genitive	tēlī	tēlōrum
Dative	tēlō	tēlīs
Accusative	tēlum	tēla
Ablative	tēlō	tēlīs
Vocative	tēlum	tēla

Descendants

From *telāriā:

• Galician: tieira
• Spanish: telera

References

• “telum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “telum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• telum 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)
• telum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to be armed: cum telo esse
    
  • to be out of range: extra teli iactum, coniectum esse
    
  • to come within javelin-range: ad teli coniectum venire (Liv. 2. 31)
    
  • (ambiguous) to be exposed to the assaults of fate: fortunae telis propositum esse
    
  • (ambiguous) to discharge missiles: tela iacere, conicere, mittere
    
  • (ambiguous) to expose oneself to missiles: se obicere telis
    
  • (ambiguous) to discharge showers of missiles: tela ingerere, conicere