Disputatio:Urbs

E Vicipaedia

Please see: en:Latin names of European cities +it:, +ro: and de:Liste lateinischer Ortsnamen (not only from Europe). Regards Gangleri 00:52 nov 8, 2004 (UTC)

[recensere] Oppidum = town = paese?

My dictionaries aren't in agreement on this, however it seems to me that the closest equivalent to the English town or the Italian paese would be oppidum. What do you think? LionhardusCiampa 02:13, 17 Septembris 2007 (UTC)

Oppidum certainly is a good equivalent for English "town", and urbs for "city". In English, admittedly, the meaning of these words varies from place to place. Oppidum suits a smaller and less-important place.
As far as I can see, Italian "paese" has a lot of other meanings; it often refers to a rural area, not to a town, and in that case it would translate to pagus or terra or some such word. But when it does refer to a town, as in a sentence such as "Napoli รจ un bel paese", you would not say pagus, I guess; you would say urbs or oppidum depending on the size of the place. Andrew Dalby 18:20, 17 Septembris 2007 (UTC)