Translation
territory
Word origin
From Latin territorium, the land belonging to a town. It is usually derived from terra, 'earth, land', though the suffix is irregular and has never been fully explained. Esperanto borrowed the international word whole, simplifying the Latin double r to one.
- Origin
- Latin
- Root
- territorium
- English cognates
- territory, terrain, terrestrial, terrace
Other proposed origins
- An account preserved by the Roman grammarian Festus derives territorium instead from terrere, 'to frighten' - the territorium being the district from which magistrates could frighten intruders off. Most modern etymologists treat this as folk etymology, but because the ordinary derivation from terra cannot explain the -tor- either, the older suggestion is still recorded in serious dictionaries rather than dismissed. (Latin, terrere)
Examples
.
The mountains are the border of that large territory.
.
The army marched through the whole territory.
.
On the map you can see the territories of the old kingdom.
A false seam that is almost respectable. Tero is Esperanto for earth or ground, and it is sitting in plain sight in the first three letters of . The parse - plus -itori- plus -o looks like something a confident learner could defend. It is not a build: Esperanto has no suffix -itori-, and the word arrived from Latin in one piece.
What makes this one unusual is that the resemblance may not be an accident at all. If the standard etymology is right, the Latin source territorium was itself formed on terra, so - really is in there - inherited, not built, and visible only because Esperanto borrowed both words from the same place. That is a different thing from Esperanto word-formation, and treating it as word-formation is what gets learners into trouble. Note also the spelling: Latin doubles the r, Esperanto does not, because Esperanto has almost no double consonants.
The related vocabulary keeps the two roots apart cleanly. From tero: tera (earthly), surtera (on the ground), subtera (underground). From this page: teritoria (territorial), and in law eksterteritoria for the diplomatic immunity of an embassy. And note the sense: a need not be a country. It is any bounded stretch of land under someone's control, which is why it works for an empire's provinces and for an animal's patch of woodland alike.
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teritorio: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Esperanto word "teritorio" (territory): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.
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Start your free weekThis word is part of lesson 40.