English

Noun

communitas ‎(uncountable)

1. An unstructured community in which people are equal.
2. The very spirit of community; an intense community spirit, the feeling of great social equality, solidarity, and togetherness.

Quotations

• 1986. Victor W. Turner. The Anthropology of Experience. University of Illinois Press: 1986, page 43:

  A sense of harmony with the universe is made evident and the whole planet is felt to be communitas.

• 1991. Victor Turner. Contesting the Sacred, Routledge, 1991:

  The achievement of communitas is the pilgrim's fundamental motivation.

References

• Creating Communitas, a project at www.wechange.org
• Forbes Leslie
• Communal Sustainability
• Forming Tribalized Communities

Latin

Etymology

From commūnis ‎(“common, public”)

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /komˈmuː.ni.taːs/, [kɔmˈmuː.nɪ.taːs]

Noun

commūnitās f ‎(genitive commūnitātis); third declension

1. a community
2. public spirit, a sense of duty and willingness to serve one's community

Inflection

Third declension.

Related terms

• commūniō
• commūnis

Descendants

• English: communitas, community
• Italian: comunità

References

• communitas in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• communitas in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• COMMUNITAS in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• communitas in Ramminger, Johann (accessed 16 July 2016) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700, pre-publication website, 2005-2016