alimonium

Forms

alimōnium n (genitive alimōniī or alimōnī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin alō (“to nourish”) + -mōnium, with the ending of testimōnium and vadimōnium.^[2][3] De Vaan traces ⟨alō⟩ to Proto-Italic *ale/o- (“to feed”), Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-e/o- (“to nourish”), cognate with Old Irish ailid (“rears”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest citations are Varro.^[2] Köbler dates Varro 116–27 BC.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It meant food, nourishment, and upbringing, nurture, also the cost of maintenance, as in Varro, Gellius and Tacitus, and Lewis & Short note it is ante-classical and post-Augustan for the classical alimentum.^[2][3][6]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it.^[2][5]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it.^[6][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Food, nourishment.^[2][3]
2. Upbringing; maintenance.^[2]

Word family

• alimōnia

Related words

• alō
• alimentum
• alumnus
• English alimony

Usage notes

A first-declension alimōnia has the same meaning.^[6]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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 c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.