compitum

Latin

Alternative forms

Etymology

From con- (“with”) +‎ petō (“to seek, aim at”); compare competō (“to come together”).

Pronunciation

Noun

compitum n (genitive compitī); second declension

  1. (chiefly in the plural) crossroads
    • 63 BC, Cicero, De Lege Agraria‎[1], 1.3.7:
      At hoc etiam nēquissimī hominēs consūmptīs patrimōniīs faciunt ut in ātriīs auctiōnāriīs potius quam in triviīs aut in compitīs auctiōnentur; [...]
      But even the most worthless people do this when their inheritances are used up, so that they hold their auctions in auction halls rather than on the street or on the intersections...
    • c. 1 AD, Livy, Ab Urbe Condita‎[2], section 27.4:
      Multa eā aestāte quā haec facta sunt ex propinquīs urbibus agrīsque nūntiāta sunt prōdigia: [...] avēs ad compitum Anagnīnum in lūcō Diānae nīdōs in arboribus relīquisse [...]
      In the summer when these things happened, many portents were reported from the nearby cities and countryside: ... that the birds by a crossroads at Anagnia, in the grove of Diana, had abandoned their nests in the trees...
    • c. 90 AD, Martial, Epigrams, 7.97.9-13:
      Ō quantum tibi nōminis parātur!
      Ō quae glōria! quam frequens amātor!
      Tē convīvia, tē forum sonābit,
      Aedēs, compita, porticus, tabernae.
      Ūnī mitteris, omnibus legēris.
      O, what a great name is being prepared for you!
      O, what glory! How many lovers!
      Banquets and the forum will talk about you,
      temples, crossroads, porticos, taverns.
      You are being sent to one man; you will be read to all.

Usage notes

Usually of crossroads in a city, rather than in the country.

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

singular plural
nominative compitum compita
genitive compitī compitōrum
dative compitō compitīs
accusative compitum compita
ablative compitō compitīs
vocative compitum compita

Descendants

  • → Portuguese: cômpito, compita

References

  • “compitum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • “compitum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • compitum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
  • Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎[3], London: Macmillan and Co.
    • Hercules at the cross-roads, between virtue and vice: Hercules in trivio, in bivio, in compitis
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