filius

Alternative forms

• fīlios (Old Latin)
• F (Abbreviation)

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *fīlios, *feilios (the Latin can reflect either one, but Faliscan 𐌅𐌉𐌋𐌄𐌏 (fīleo, hīleo), if original and not modeled on Latin fīlius, would point to *fīl-), from earlier *θeilios, from *dʰeh₁i-l-yo-s (“sucker”), a derivation from the verbal root *dʰeh₁(y)- (“to suck”).

Related to fellō, fēmina, fētus, Old English delu (“nipple, teat”), dēon (“to suck, suckle”), Old Armenian դալ (dal). More at doe.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈfiː.li.us/, [ˈfiːlʲiʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈfi.li.us/, [ˈfiːlius]

Noun

fīlius m (genitive fīliī or fīlī, feminine fīlia); second declension

1. a son

   Synonyms: līber, nātus

   Ubi est noster filius?

   Where is our son?

   • Caecilius Statius (died ca. 168 BC); in: Scaenicae romanorum poesis fragmenta secundis curis. Volumen II. Comicorum fragmenta. – Comicorum romanorum praeter Plautum et Terentium fragmenta secundis curis, edited by Otto Ribbeck, Leipzig, 1873, page 48:

     Fílius meus ín me incedit [éccum] sat hilará schema.

   • Caecilius Statius (died ca. 168 BC); in: Remains of Old Latin, edited and translated by E. H. Warmington, vol. I, 1935, page 496f.:

     Priscianus, ap. G.L., II, 199, 17, K: 'Schema' pro 'schemate.' . . . Caecilius in Hypobolimaeo–
     . . . filius . . . in me incedit satis
     hilara schema.

     Aged peasant, guardian of the changeling Chaerestratus:
     Priscianus: 'Schema' for 'schemate.' . . . Caecilius in The Changeling–
     Here comes my son towards me in merry shape.

2. (by extension) any male descendant
3. (in the plural) children

References

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