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basium

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word basium

Confidence
Uncertain
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
81/79–52/50 BC, Catullus
From
Celtic
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin basium
Latin basio
French baiser

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈbaː.si.ũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈbaː.s̬i.um][1]

Forms

bāsium n (genitive bāsiī or bāsī); second declension[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.[2][3][4] De Vaan thinks the late date of attestation points to a loanword; since Catullus, who brought it into the written language, came from Verona, it may be from Celtic.[5] Wiktionary likewise takes it as probably Celtic, from an expressive root.[1] De Vaan also notes that many languages have a word for "kiss" made of ⟨bu-⟩ and a sibilant, which points to onomatopoeia;[5] Lewis & Short compare buss.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Catullus uses it first,[5][4] most famously in poem 5: dā mī bāsia mīlle, "give me a thousand kisses".[6]

Semantic evolution

De Vaan says that at first it carried an erotic sense absent from ōsculum, and that in imperial Latin it became the ordinary word for a kiss.[5] Döderlein distinguishes ōsculum as a friendly kiss, suāvium as a tender one and bāsium as an ardent one.[7] Lewis & Short call it rare and mostly poetic, most frequent in Catullus, absent from Plautus and Terence, and found in Martial and Petronius;[6] the TLL notes that it is mostly plural.[3] Wiktionary gives also a kiss of the hand.[1] Its Romance descendants include Italian bacio, Old Occitan bais and Spanish beso.[3]

Timeline

  • 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus of a thousand kisses.[6][4]
  • before 66 AD – Petronius.[6]
  • 40–102/103 AD – Martial.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A kiss (of the lips, in Catullus and Martial; also of the hand).[2][6][1]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b 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. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c d 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 e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper

Derived terms

Cite this entry

“Basium.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/basium. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·