brumalis

Forms

brūmālis (neuter brūmāle); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin brūma (“winter solstice”) + -ālis.^[2][3][1] Vitruvius already explained the name brūma, and that of the winter days, by the shortness of the day.^[3] De Vaan takes the noun to be the old superlative of brevis (“short”), from a form Proto-Indo-European *mreǵh-is-mHo- that developed through ⟨*brousma⟩ to ⟨brūma⟩; the adjective goes back to *mrǵh-ú- (“short”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero uses it in his translation of Aratus for the circle of the winter solstice, the Tropic of Capricorn,^[2][5] and elsewhere of the shortest day, diēs brūmālis.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was astronomical, “of the winter solstice”: Varro speaks of the polus brūmālis, Lucretius of the brūmālis flexus, the winter turning point, and Cicero calls Capricorn the signum brūmāle.^[6][2] From the solstice the word passed to the winter in general, “wintry”, as in Hirtius' brūmālēs diēs and difficult winter marches,^[2] and to things found in winter, as when the elder Seneca speaks of houses that are warm in winter.^[2]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it means “wintry, of winter”,^[7] and Köbler finds it in Aldhelm's poems around 705.^[5] English borrowed it as brumal in the 1510s.^[8]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for the circle of the winter solstice.^[2][5]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius speaks of the winter turning point.^[6][5]
• c. 50 BC – Hirtius uses it of winter days and marches.^[2][5]
• c. 705 – It appears in Aldhelm's poems.^[5]
• 1510s – English borrows it as brumal, “belonging to winter”.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of the winter solstice;^[2][6] circulus brūmālis, the Tropic of Capricorn.^[2][6]
2. Of winter, wintry.^[2][7]
3. Happening or found during the winter.^[2]

Related words

• brevis
• English brumal

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b 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 c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com