Etymologically
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accumbo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [akˈkʊm.boː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [akˈkum.bo][1]

Forms

accumbō (present infinitive accumbere, perfect active accubuī, supine accubitum); third conjugation[1] It is also spelled adcumbō.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin ad- + -cumbō (“to lie down”).[2][4][1] De Vaan reconstructs the nasal present behind -cumbō and cubō (“to lie”) as Proto-Italic *kumbe/o- (“to lie down”), comparing Faliscan cupat (“lies”); since the root is limited to Italic and Celtic, he leaves its Indo-European origin uncertain.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first, in the Amphitruo: “what after I bathed?” “you took your place at table”.[2][5][6]

Semantic evolution

The usual sense is to take one's place at table, reclining in the Roman manner;[2][3] Accius once has it with the table in the accusative, and Cicero uses it of Spartans who dine on oak benches.[2][3] It is also to lie down in bed or elsewhere, and Virgil has a lion lying on its prey.[2] Plautus and Propertius use it of going to bed with someone, Plautus with the accusative.[2] Ovid once has it of a centaur falling prone.[2] In Church Latin it is to sit at table.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of taking one's place at table and of lying with a prostitute.[2][6]
  • 170–c. 90 BC – Accius with the table in the accusative.[2][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of Spartans reclining on oak.[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To take one's place at table, recline at a meal.[2][3][7][1]
  2. To lie down, in bed or elsewhere; to lie or rest on.[2][3][1]
  3. To go to bed with someone.[2][1]
  4. To fall prone.[2]

Word family

  • accubitiō
  • accubitum
  • accubitus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson