navis

See also: Navis, nāvis, and nāvīs

Latin

Etymology 1

nāvis birēmis (bireme ship)

From Proto-Indo-European *néh₂us, cognate with Ancient Greek ναῦς (naûs, “ship”), Armenian նավ (nav, “ship or boat”), Persian ناو (nâv), and Sanskrit नौ (nau, “ship”).

Alternative forms

• nauis (typographical variant)

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈnaː.u̯is/, [ˈnäːu̯ɪs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈna.vis/, [ˈnäːvis]

Noun

nāvis f (genitive nāvis); third declension, i-stem

1. ship, boat, vessel; a fleet in the plural
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 1.120–122:

     Iam validam Īlioneī nāvem, iam fortis Achātī,
     et quā vectus Abās, et quā grandaevus Alētēs,
     vīcit hiems [...].

     Now the sturdy ship of Ilioneus, now [the ship] of brave Achates, and [that ship] by which Abas has been carried, and [that ship] by which old Aletes [has been carried]: the storm defeats [them all].
     (The storm at sea destroys the Trojan fleet; the passage exemplifies ellipsis, since it refers to four different ships, yet uses the word “navem” only once.)

   • c. 65 CE, Seneca the Younger, Epistulae morales ad Lucilium 5.43.2:

     Nāvis, quae in flūmine magna est, in marī parvula est.

     A ship, which is big in a river, is tiny in a sea.

2. nave (middle or body of a church)

Declension

Third-declension noun (i-stem, accusative singular in -em or -im, ablative singular in -e or -ī).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	nāvis	nāvēs
Genitive	nāvis	nāvium
Dative	nāvī	nāvibus
Accusative	nāvem nāvim	nāvēs nāvīs
Ablative	nāve nāvī	nāvibus
Vocative	nāvis	nāvēs

Derived terms

• nāvālis
• nāvia
• nāvicella
• nāvicula
• nāviculāris
• nāviculārius
• nāviculor
• nāvifragus
• nāvigābilis
• nāvigātiō
• nāvigātor
• nāviger
• nāvigium
• nāvigō
• nāvis longa

Related terms

• nauta

Descendants

• Aromanian: nai
• Asturian: nave
• Friulian: nâf, nâv
• Galician: nave
• Italian: nave
  • → Slavomolisano: nava
• Old French: nef, naf, nau
  • Middle French: nef, nau (Parisian dialect)
    • French: nef (obsolete or poetic)
      • → Breton: nev
      • → English: nef
    • Norman: nef
  • Poitevin-Saintongeais: nau
• Old Occitan: nau
  • Catalan: nau
    • → Portuguese: nau, nao (obsolete)
      • → English: nau
    • → Spanish: nao
  • Occitan: nau
• Piedmontese: nav
• Portuguese: nave
• Romanian: naie, navă
• Romansch: nav, nev
• Sardinian: nae, nai, nave, navi
• Sicilian: navi
• Spanish: nave
• Venetian: nave
• → English: nave
• → Ido: navo

Etymology 2

Inflected form of nāvus (“active, diligent”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈnaː.u̯iːs/, [ˈnäːu̯iːs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈna.vis/, [ˈnäːvis]

Adjective

nāvīs

1. dative/ablative masculine/feminine/neuter plural of nāvus

References

• “navis”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “navis”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• navis 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)
• navis in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to have a powerful navy: navibus plurimum posse
    
  • much damage was done by this collision: ex eo navium concursu magnum incommodum est acceptum
    
  • (ambiguous) a cutter: navis actuaria
    
  • (ambiguous) a man-of-war: navis longa
    
  • (ambiguous) a transport or cargo-boat: navis oneraria
    
  • (ambiguous) a merchantman: navis mercatoria
    
  • (ambiguous) to build a ship, a fleet: navem, classem aedificare, facere, efficere, instituere
    
  • (ambiguous) to equip a boat, a fleet: navem (classem) armare, ornare, instruere
    
  • (ambiguous) to launch a boat: navem deducere (vid. sect. XII. 1, note Notice too...)
    
  • (ambiguous) to haul up a boat: navem subducere (in aridum)
    
  • (ambiguous) to repair a boat: navem reficere
    
  • (ambiguous) to embark: navem conscendere, ascendere
    
  • (ambiguous) to embark an army: exercitum in naves imponere (Liv. 22. 19)
    
  • (ambiguous) ships of last year: naves annotinae
    
  • (ambiguous) to weigh anchor, sail: navem (naves) solvere
    
  • (ambiguous) the ships sail from the harbour: naves ex portu solvunt
    
  • (ambiguous) to row: navem remis agere or propellere
    
  • (ambiguous) to row hard: navem remis concitare, incitare
    
  • (ambiguous) to back water: navem retro inhibere (Att. 13. 21)
    
  • (ambiguous) the ship strikes on the rocks: navis ad scopulos alliditur (B. C. 3. 27)
    
  • (ambiguous) to land (of people): appellere navem (ad terram, litus)
    
  • (ambiguous) to make fast boats to anchors: naves ad ancoras deligare (B. G. 4. 29)
    
  • (ambiguous) to make fast boats to anchors: naves (classem) constituere (in alto)
    
  • (ambiguous) to land, disembark: exire ex, de navi
    
  • (ambiguous) the admiral's ship; the flagship: navis praetoria (Liv. 21. 49)
    
  • (ambiguous) to clear for action: navem expedire
    
  • (ambiguous) to charge, ram a boat: navem rostro percutere
    
  • (ambiguous) to board and capture a boat: navem expugnare
    
  • (ambiguous) to sink a ship, a fleet: navem, classem deprimere, mergere
    
  • (ambiguous) to throw grappling irons on board; to board: copulas, manus ferreas (in navem) inicere
    
  • (ambiguous) to throw grappling irons on board; to board: in navem (hostium) transcendere
    
  • (ambiguous) to capture a boat: navem capere, intercipere, deprehendere
    
• “navis”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “navis”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin