Kilo Lingo

Line drawing of civilizo
Coloured illustration of civilizo
#1789 of 5,000 Core 5000

Translation

civilisation

Word origin

From French civilisation, built on Latin civilis ('of a citizen'), from civis ('citizen'). The idea underneath is city-dwelling: a civilisation is what happens when people live together in one.

Origin
French
Root
civilis
English cognates
civilisation, civil, citizen, civic

Examples

.

The ancient civilisation left behind great temples.

.

Every civilisation has its own customs.

.

The war destroyed an entire civilisation.

A civilisation as a whole thing, the settled way of life of a people over a long stretch of time. Kulturo is the narrower word for the art, habits and manners inside one, and the two are not swappable: is the whole society, is what it made and thought.

Do not try to cut this into civil- plus -iz-. Esperanto has no official -iz- suffix, and even if you allow the technical one that engineers use, it means "to equip with", which gets you nowhere near a civilisation. The root here is -, borrowed whole from the French noun. The verb civilizi and the adjective civiliza sit on that same root; the separate root civil- gives civila, "civil" in the sense of civilian or non-military, and it is a different word with a different meaning.

Where this fits

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Esperanto · Free printables

civilizo: worksheet, infographic and listicle

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This word is part of lesson 36.