concubitus

Forms

concubitus m (genitive concubitūs); fourth declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin concumbō (“to lie together”) + -tus, a noun of action.^[2][3][1] The verb is con- and -cumbō, which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *kumbe/o- (“to lie down”); since the root has /b/ and is found only in Italic and Celtic, its Proto-Indo-European origin is uncertain.^[4] Cognate with Faliscan cupat (“lies”) and Middle Welsh kyscu (“to sleep”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first example in the OLD is in Plautus, where Jupiter says he made Alcmena pregnant with a son by lying with her.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its basic sense is lying together;^[2][5] Varro explains concubium, the time of first sleep, from it, and Propertius uses it of reclining together at dinner.^[2][5] The usual sense is sexual intercourse, in Ovid, Livy, Virgil and Tacitus.^[2][1] Caelius Aurelianus uses it for the firm closing of the teeth.^[5] Church Latin has cohabitation and coitus,^[6] and in British medieval law forced intercourse is violentus concubitus.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of Jupiter and Alcmena.^[2][8]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of lying together to sleep.^[2][8]
• 57/46–12 BC – Propertius of reclining at dinner.^[2][8]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil in the sexual sense.^[2][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A lying together, for sleeping or dining.^[2][5][1]
2. Sexual intercourse, coitus.^[2][5][1][6]

Word family

• concubitālis

Related words

• concubina
• cubō

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de