# 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: /duˈel.lum/, [d̪uˈɛlːʲʊ̃ˑ]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /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
* (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 RileyFare 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.
* (Medieval Latin) combat between two contenders, duel
    Synonyms: certamen, rixa, certatus, dimicatio
    Mors et vita duello conflixere mirandoDeath and life have contended in a marvelous combat (from the Easter Sequence)

#### Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter), with locative.
| Case | 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

### References

* ↑ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “bellum”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 70
* ↑ The Amphitruo of Plautus, edited with introduction and notes by Arthur Palmer, 1890. page 22
* ↑ "Dvellvm", Wendell Clausen, 1971. Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 75, pp. 69-72.
* ↑ Clausen 1971
* ↑ Tenney Frank, 1904. Attraction of Mood in Early Latin. Page 56.

### 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.