出典:Wiktionary
出典:『Wiktionary』 (2026/05/08 02:02 UTC 版)
Pokorny connected the word to terms such as Ancient Greek δαίω (daíō), which is now often derived from *deh₂w- (“to burn”). De Vaan 2008 instead favors Pinault 1987's proposal of a derivation from *dwenelos, a diminutive of *dwenos, itself an earlier form of bonus (“good, brave”). Perhaps the sense of "brave" allowed for the term to become a euphemism for wartime deeds, itself facilitating an eventual generalization to the overall concept of war. Sihler explains the retention of -e- here as an effect of the following l exilis, arguing that *dwe- normally became *dwo- > bo- (compare duenos > bonus).
By a regular change of dw- to b-, it became bellum, the usual form used for the sense "war". 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”).
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.
duellum n (genitive duellī); second 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 | — |
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.
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