vallum

English

Etymology

From Latin vallum. Doublet of wall comes from this word via a Proto-Germanic borrowing from Latin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈvæləm/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

vallum (plural vallums or valla)

1. (historical, Ancient Rome) A rampart; a wall, as in a fortification.
2. (anatomy) The eyebrow.

Related terms

• vallar crown

References

• “vallum”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Latin

Etymology 1

Probably from Proto-Italic *walso, from Proto-Indo-European *uh₂lso-, itself perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *welH- (“to turn, wind, roll”). Compare Ancient Greek ἧλος (hêlos, “nail”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈwal.lũː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈval.lum]

Noun

vallum n (genitive vallī); second declension

1. wall, rampart, entrenchment
   • 27 BCE – 25 BCE, Titus Livius, Ab urbe condita 7.13:

     […] ; quamquam de gloria vix dicere ausim, si nos et hostes haud secus quam feminas abditos intra vallum omnibus contumeliis eludunt, et […]

     […] ; though I had as lief not to speak of glory, when the enemy jeers us with much abuse as if women concealing behind walls, and […]

Usage notes

• The nature of the root vowel (văllum or vāllum) is not properly known, though the West Germanic borrowing *wall, with a short vowel, seems to indicate the former. Most dictionaries that specify vowel length in closed syllables, especially those published in the 21st century, do not mark it as long.

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

	singular	plural
nominative	vallum	valla
genitive	vallī	vallōrum
dative	vallō	vallīs
accusative	vallum	valla
ablative	vallō	vallīs
vocative	vallum	valla

Derived terms

• circumvāllō
• intervallum
• vallaris
• vallō
• vallus

Descendants

• Italian: vallo
• Old Catalan:
  • Catalan: vall
• Old Galician-Portuguese:
  • Galician: valo
  • Portuguese: valo, vala
• Old Spanish:
  • Spanish: valla
• Sicilian: vaḍḍu
• → Albanian: avulli
• → English: vallum (learned)
• → Czech: val
• → Polish: wał
• → Romanian: val
• → Proto-West Germanic: *wall (see there for further descendants)

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Noun

vallum

1. accusative singular of vallus (“stake”)

References

• “vallum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “vallum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "vallum", 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)
• “vallum”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to raise a rampart, earthwork: vallum iacere, exstruere, facere
    
  • (ambiguous) to fortify the camp with a rampart: castra munire vallo (aggere)
    
  • (ambiguous) to keep watch on the rampart: custodias agere in vallo
    
  • (ambiguous) to surround a town with a rampart and fosse: oppidum cingere vallo et fossa
    
• “vallum”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “vallum”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin