- mīlex (Vulgar or Late Latin, Appendix Probi, hypercorrection)
Etymology
Unknown. Possibly of Etruscan origin. The suffix seems similar to that of pedes, eques, veles, comes, but the origin of mīl- is opaque. A connection to mīlia (“thousands”), perhaps as "person going by the thousand(s)", is difficult to confidently motivate semantically.[1]
References
De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “mīles”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 379
Further reading
- “miles”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “miles”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- "miles", 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)
- miles in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
- to fire with courage: animos militum accendere
- to give furlough, leave of absence to soldiers: commeatum militibus dare (opp. petere)
- veterans; experienced troops: vetus miles, veteranus miles
- a soldier lightly armed, ready for battle: expeditus (opp. impeditus) miles
- to pay the troops: stipendium dare, numerare, persolvere militibus
- to encourage, embolden the soldiery: animos militum confirmare (B. G. 5. 49)
- (ambiguous) to levy troops: milites (exercitum) scribere, conscribere
- (ambiguous) to compel communities to provide troops: imperare milites civitatibus
- (ambiguous) to make soldiers take the military oath: milites sacramento rogare, adigere
- (ambiguous) light infantry: milites levis armaturae
- (ambiguous) soldiers collected in haste; irregulars: milites tumultuarii (opp. exercitus iustus) (Liv. 35. 2)
- (ambiguous) mercenary troops: milites mercennarii or exercitus conducticius
- (ambiguous) to keep good discipline amongst one's men: milites disciplina coercere
- (ambiguous) to keep good discipline amongst one's men: milites coercere et in officio continere (B. C. 1. 67. 4)
- (ambiguous) to take the troops to their winter-quarters: milites in hibernis collocare, in hiberna deducere
- (ambiguous) to leave troops to guard the camp: praesidio castris milites relinquere
- (ambiguous) to harangue the soldiers: contionari apud milites (B. C. 1. 7)
- (ambiguous) to harangue the soldiers: contionem habere apud milites
- (ambiguous) to disembark troops: milites in terram, in terra exponere
- miles in Ramminger, Johann (2016 July 16 (last accessed)) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700, pre-publication website, 2005-2016
