Etymologically
Log in

corymbus

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 12:55. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kɔˈrym.bʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [koˈrim.bus][1]

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
  • 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