corymbus

Forms

corymbus m (genitive corymbī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek κόρυμβος (kórumbos, “top, peak; cluster of fruit”).^[2][3][1] Wiktionary connects the Greek word with κορυφή (koruphḗ, “head, top”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Virgil on,^[4] meaning a cluster of ivy berries: the Eclogues have diffusos hedera vestit pallente corymbos, of spreading clusters clothed with pale ivy.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is used above all of the clusters of ivy berries, as in the wreaths of Bacchus in Propertius and of Osiris in Tibullus,^[5] and then of any cluster of flowers or fruit, as in Columella and Pliny the Elder.^[2][5] In Valerius Flaccus the plural means the ornamented stern of a ship, after the Greek neuter plural.^[2][6] The medical poet Serenus Sammonicus uses it of the nipple, and the poem Aetna of a mound of earth.^[5] In medieval British Latin it still means a cluster of ivy berries or grapes, glossed in Old English.^[7]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil, of ivy clusters.^[2][4]
• c. 55–19/18 BC – Tibullus, of a wreath of clusters.^[2][4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder, of flower clusters.^[2][4]
• 639–709 AD – Aldhelm, of berry clusters.^[7][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cluster of ivy berries; any cluster of flowers or fruit.^[2][5][1]
2. (plural) The ornamented stern of a ship.^[2][6]
3. The nipple.^[5][6]

Word family

• corymbifer

Related words

• English corymb

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b 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