clunis

Forms

clūnis m or f (genitive clūnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *klouni-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlou-ni- (“hip, buttock”).^[2][1] Cognate with Middle Welsh clun (“haunch”), Sanskrit श्रोणि (śróṇi-, “buttock, hip, loin”), Lithuanian šlaunìs (“haunch, hip”) and Old Norse hlaun (“buttocks”).^[2] The OLD also compares Ancient Greek κλόνις (klónis, “os sacrum”), but de Vaan thinks it cannot continue the same form and calls the usual explanation gratuitous.^[3][2] He finds no good root etymology for it.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler find it first in Plautus.^[2][4] Lucilius uses it of someone who will wriggle as if winnowing grain with his buttocks.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It means the hind quarters, buttocks or haunches, mostly in the plural, of animals and people:^[3][5] Horace has wood pigeons served without the rump.^[3] Pliny the Elder uses it of the hind part of spiders and of a kind of cockroach with a pointed rear.^[3] Lewis & Short note that it is both masculine and feminine, so that the grammarians differ on its gender; the singular occurs in Horace, Juvenal, Martial, Petronius and Pliny the Elder.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus.^[2][4]
• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius of winnowing with the buttocks.^[3]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of pigeons without the rump.^[3]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of spiders and cockroaches.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The hind quarters, buttocks, haunches, rump.^[3][5][1]
2. The corresponding part of spiders and insects.^[3]

Word family

• clūnāculum
• clūnālis
• clūnicula
• clūniculus

Related words

• nātis

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press