Definition of latifundium in English:
latifundium
nounPlural latifundiaˌlɑːtɪˈfʌndɪəmˌlatɪˈfʌndɪəmˌlædəˈfəndiəm
A large landed estate or ranch in ancient Rome or more recently in Spain or Latin America, typically worked by peasants or slaves.
Example sentencesExamples
- Despite this industrialisation, a third of the population still worked as agricultural labourers, many in large estates or latifundia.
- The labour needed to work these latifundia was provided by transforming free peasants into unfree tenants tied to the land.
- The Alentejo has traditionally been a region of low population density, latifundia that originated in the Roman estate system, and landless day laborers.
- In the seventh and eighth centuries, the city drew its food supply from the public, papal, and ecclesiastical patrimony in the Latium countryside and the latifundia of Sicily.
- The countryside was dominated by giant estates or latifundia.
Origin
Mid 17th century: from Latin, from latus 'broad' + fundus 'landed estate', partly via Spanish.
Definition of latifundium in US English:
latifundium
nounˌlædəˈfəndiəmˌladəˈfəndēəm
A large landed estate or ranch in ancient Rome or more recently in Spain or Latin America, typically worked by slaves.
Example sentencesExamples
- The Alentejo has traditionally been a region of low population density, latifundia that originated in the Roman estate system, and landless day laborers.
- The labour needed to work these latifundia was provided by transforming free peasants into unfree tenants tied to the land.
- In the seventh and eighth centuries, the city drew its food supply from the public, papal, and ecclesiastical patrimony in the Latium countryside and the latifundia of Sicily.
- Despite this industrialisation, a third of the population still worked as agricultural labourers, many in large estates or latifundia.
- The countryside was dominated by giant estates or latifundia.
Origin
Mid 17th century: from Latin, from latus ‘broad’ + fundus ‘landed estate’, partly via Spanish.