latifundium
Americannoun
-
latifundia
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of latifundium
1620–30; < Latin, equivalent to lāt ( us ) wide, broad + -i- -i- + fund ( us ) a piece of land, farm, estate + -ium -ium
Explanation
In ancient Rome, a latifundium was a large agricultural property that was farmed by enslaved people. Most latifundia also had large villas where the landowner lived. Several of the grand manor houses that once sat among each Roman latifundium's acres of farmed fields have been excavated by archaeologists. They reveal additional details of life on the huge landed estates: While wealthy owners decorated their homes with frescoes and lived in comfort, enslaved workers did the hard labor of farming olives, grain, and other lucrative crops. Latifundium, "spacious farm" in Latin, was later used for 16th-century Spanish and Portuguese land grants, which were also farmed by forced laborers.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Large estates, known as latifundia, were agricultural operations in which enslaved people worked the land for the owner’s profit.
From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023
In the city, and in the household especially, they had more advantages and avoided the brutal physical labor demanded in mines, quarries, and latifundia across the empire.
From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023
As the old freehold farming class lost its lands to the big owners of the latifundia, the productivity of the soil decreased.
From Time Magazine Archive
Yet the Gracchan attempt to solve the land crisis that had been caused by the growth of the monopolistic latifundia, or great estates, was beaten back by the republican Senate.
From Time Magazine Archive
Yet the free farmers had by no means entirely disappeared and free labor was employed even on the latifundia themselves.
From A History of Rome to 565 A. D. by Arthur Edward Romilly Boak
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