# via, callis, ruta, ....



## francisgranada

Helllo,

What was the Latin term for "street" in ancient Rome ?

(I mean the streets _inside _the city or town, not "roads" like Via Appia, etc. )

The reason of my question is the fact the in Italy we have typically _via _(<via), in Spain _calle _(<callis), in France _rue _(<ruta). 

Thanks in advance


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## Starless74

Hello,
I believe *via* might indicate both roads like via Appia and smaller city streets.
_*Vicus*_ is another option.


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## Penyafort

*Callis *was apparently a stony uneven footway, often in the wild (_per calles silvestres_) or the mountains. It probably developed in Latin itself to mean any kind of stoney rough passage or alley. It's the most certainly used term in Spanish and I think it is also used in Venetian. In Catalan we have the word _call_, used for a narrow passage between rocks and for the old Jewish neighbourhoods in medieval towns.

*Rue *doesn't come from RUTA but from RUGA 'wrinkle, furrow', from which it would metaphorically be used in Low Latin to those paths surrounded by houses. It's mainly used in French and Portuguese now but it also existed in Old Catalan and Old Spanish and can still be sporadically seen.

In Catalan, the common word for street is _*carrer*_. (In Occitan _*carrièra*_, in Aragonese _*carrera*_) These come from the adjective *CARRARIU/CARRARIA*, which applied to either _CAMINUS _or _VIA _meant 'path for the carts'.


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## Sobakus

*via* in the widest sense is anything that leads somewhere. To specify a paved "highway"-type road you'd use *via strāta* > It. _strada._ *vīcus* is an agglomeration of houses, a neighborhood, and hence an alley flanked by such rows of houses, as opposed to an open *platea*.


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## francisgranada

Penyafort said:


> *Rue *doesn't come from RUTA but from RUGA 'wrinkle, furrow', from which it would metaphorically be used in Low Latin to those paths surrounded by houses.


Interesting, I didn't know it (I have supposed something like ruta>*ruda>*rua>rue).  





Sobakus said:


> * ...*_._ *vīcus* is an agglomeration of houses, a neighborhood, and hence an alley flanked by such rows of houses ....


This is also interesting because in Italy we have  also _vicolo _(< lat. _viculus_, diminutive of _vicus_) which is something like a "little/short street".  Isn't there any etymological connection between *via *and *vicus*?


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## Penyafort

francisgranada said:


> Interesting, I didn't know it (I have supposed something like ruta>*ruda>*rua>rue).



And you suppose well, because that was what actually happened with the other sense of the word RUTA, that is, the plant (which English also calls rue, as it took the word from French).

The hint that lets you know it comes from RUGA and not RUTA is that, while in French both gave _rue _because of intensive dropping, in other Western Romance languages a -d- should appear instead of a -g- or a C-drop. That's what happens with the plant, called _ruda _in Iberia.


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## Sobakus

francisgranada said:


> This is also interesting because in Italy we have  also _vicolo _(< lat. _viculus_, diminutive of _vicus_) which is something like a "little/short street".  Isn't there any etymological connection between *via *and *vicus*?


Not likely - *via *is probably connected to *vīs* "you want" and *invītus* "unwilling", from *weih1 "to strive after" (AGr. *ῑ̔́εμαι*, Lith. *výti *"to drive, pursue"); *vīcus* like *vīlla* derives from *weiḱ- "dwelling" (AGr. *(ϝ)ὀῖκοσ* "house", Ru. *весь* "village").


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## francisgranada

Sobakus said:


> Not likely - *via *is probably connected to *vīs* "you want" and *invītus* "unwilling", from *weih1 "to strive after" (AGr. *ῑ̔́εμαι*, Lith. *výti *"to drive, pursue"); *vīcus* like *vīlla* derives from *weiḱ- "dwelling" (AGr. *(ϝ)ὀῖκοσ* "house", Ru. *весь* "village").


Thanks, it is very interesting. However this, thou indirectly,  implies also the possible etymological connection of Lat. _velle_, Slavic _voliti_, English _will_, German _will/wollen _ with _*via*_.  On the other hand, Lat.  _victus, vixi _(<vivere) could be - in theory - connexed  with _vicus _and _villa_.  Is all this  possible or probable or we have to do with other IE roots or stems?


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## Scholiast

Greetings all

_ϝ_οἶκος = _vicus_,_ senza dubbio_, and of course a further link (via the diminutive _viculus_) to _vῑlla_ is plausible. But I have yet to be persuaded about links with Greek ἵεμαι*, *or with _volo _/ _velle_, let alone _vivo_, _vivere_, which _prima facie_ to me looks like being closer to Greek βί[_ϝ_]ομαι.

Σ


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## Sobakus

francisgranada said:


> Thanks, it is very interesting. However this, thou indirectly,  implies also the possible etymological connection of Lat. _velle_, Slavic _voliti_, English _will_, German _will/wollen _ with _*via*_.  On the other hand, Lat.  _victus, vixi _(<vivere) could be - in theory - connexed  with _vicus _and _villa_.  Is all this  possible or probable or we have to do with other IE roots or stems?


The Latin *vīs* doesn't belong to the rest of the paradigm of *velle* - it can't be satisfactorily explained as a phonetic development, pointing towards suppletion. A suitable root happens to already exist in Latin as *invītus*, and it also finds cognates in other languages as mentioned. There's no -i- in the PIE root of *vel-/вель-* proper, *welh₁. There's no w- in the root for *vīv-/жив-* < *gʷeyh₃-. As such I don't believe that either can be connected to *vīcus/весь*.


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