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adnumero

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word adnumero

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 250–184 BC, Plautus
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European (*nem-e/os-)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin numero
Latin enumero
Latin adnumero

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [anˈnʊ.mɛ.roː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [adˈnuː.me.ro][1]

Forms

adnumerō (present infinitive adnumerāre, perfect active adnumerāvī, supine adnumerātum); first conjugation[1] It is also spelled annumerō.[2][1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ad- + numerō (“to count”).[2][1][3] numerō is formed from numerus (“number”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *nomeso- and Proto-Indo-European *nem-e/os- (“apportioning”), comparing Ancient Greek νέμω (némō, “to dispense, distribute”) and νόμος (nómos, “custom, law”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first: a man says that a talent of silver was counted out to him alone.[3]

Semantic evolution

It is first to count out money, to pay: Terence has money paid out on the spot.[2] Gellius uses it of reckoning time, the Roman day counted from midnight to midnight.[2] It is also to enumerate: Cicero says that in translating he did not think he should count words out to the reader one by one.[2] Then it is to include in a total or count among, and to assign: Pliny the Elder writes of stars assigned to individual mortals.[2] Church Latin glosses it number, count again, enumerate.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of counting out silver.[3][6]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence of paying out money.[2][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of counting out words.[2][6]
  • c. 165 AD – Gellius of reckoning days.[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To count out, pay out; to reckon time.[2][1]
  2. To enumerate, count, run through.[2][5]
  3. To include in a total, count in; to count among, rank with; to assign, attribute.[2][1]

Word family

  • annumerātiō

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry

“Adnumero.” Etymologically, 19 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/adnumero. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·