duellum

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *dwellom, further etymology uncertain.

Perhaps from *deh₂w-, *dew- (“to injure, destroy, burn”), cognate with Ancient Greek δαίω (daíō, “to burn”), δηιοτής (dēiotḗs, “battle”), δύη (dúē, “misery, pain”).

See also *dwey- (“to fear”), whence dīrus, Ancient Greek δεινός (deinós), Sanskrit द्वेषस् (dvéṣas) and others.

De Vaan instead favors Pinault 1987's proposal of a derivation from a diminutive of bonus (“good, brave”) (Proto-Italic *dwenos), i.e. bellus, with the sense developing from an originally euphemistic use.

The initial dw of duellum changed to b in bellum (compare the change from duis to bis, and duonos to bonus). See w:History of Latin § Other sequences. The archaic form duellum survived in poetry. In Medieval Latin, the sense shifted to a combat between, specifically, two contenders, under the influence of the (non-cognate) word duo (“two”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /duˈel.lum/, [d̪uˈɛlːʲʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /duˈel.lum/, [d̪uˈɛlːum]

In Plautus, who uses this form occasionally as an archaizing alternative to bellum, duel- generally scans as a single syllable, implying a pronunciation with the original cluster /dw/. However, in Amphitryon 189 (quoted below), if the manuscripts are not corrupt, the scansion with /du/ may occur (du.ël.lo‿ex.stinc.to). But an alternative explanation is that this line starts with dvel.lo.ex.stinc.to, with hiatus rather than elision of the final -o.

The innovative pronunciation with /du/ occurs in Ennius' Annales ("Hos pestis necuit, pars occidit illa duellis") and in the works of subsequent poets such as Ovid, Horace, and Statius.

Noun

duellum n (genitive duellī); second declension

1. (poetic, Old Latin) war
   • c. 200 BCE – 190 BCE, Plautus, Captivi 68, (iambic senarius):

     abeo. valete, iudices iustissimi / domi dvellique dvellatores optumi.

     • Translation by Henry Thomas Riley

       Fare ye well, at home, most upright judges, and in warfare most valiant combatants.

   • c. 190 BCE – 185 BCE, Plautus, Amphitryon 1.1.188–189, (iambic octonarius):

     Victores victis hostibus legiones reveniunt domum,
     duello exstincto maximo atque internecatis hostibus.

     Victorious, the enemy vanquished, our legions are returning home,
     with a mighty war brought to an end and all the enemy slain.

2. (Medieval Latin) combat between two contenders, duel

   Synonyms: certamen, rixa, certatus, dimicatio

   Mors et vita duello conflixere mirando

   Death and life have contended in a marvelous combat (from the Easter Sequence)

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter), with locative.

	singular	plural
nominative	duellum	duella
genitive	duellī	duellōrum
dative	duellō	duellīs
accusative	duellum	duella
ablative	duellō	duellīs
vocative	duellum	duella
locative	duellī	duellīs

The locative form duellī occurred as an archaic alternative to bellī with the same sense of "at war", "in wartime"; this form is found in the works of Plautus.

Synonyms

• bellum

Derived terms

• duellātor
• duellis
• duellō
• Duellōna
• perduellis
• ?proelium

Descendants

• → Danish: duel
• → English: duel
• → Esperanto: duelo
• → Middle French: duel (semi-learned)
  • French: duel
    • → Russian: дуэль (duelʹ)
  • → Dutch: duel
• → Galician: duelo (semi-learned)
• → German: Duell
• → Ido: duelo
• → Italian: duello (semi-learned)
  • → English: duelo
• → Norwegian Nynorsk: duell
• → Piedmontese: duel (semi-learned)
• → Portuguese: duelo (semi-learned)
• → Romanian: duel (semi-learned)
• → Spanish: duelo (semi-learned)
• → Swedish: duell

See also

• bellum

Further reading

• “duellum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “duellum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• duellum 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)
• duellum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.