crumena

Forms

crumēna f (genitive crumēnae); first declension^[1] The OLD, Georges and Conte head it crumīna;^[2][3][4] Gaffiot and Lewis and Short give crumēna first.^[5][6] Georges calls crumēna only a poor manuscript variant,^[3] but the TLL notes that it is transmitted in Plautus and Gellius.^[7]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[2][7] It is perhaps borrowed from Ancient Greek γρυμέα (gruméa, “bag, chest”), somehow altered;^[2][7][1][8] Wiktionary also mentions Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut”), as in scrūta (“rubbish”) and scrautum (“quiver”),^[1] and Lewis and Short took it for an older ⟨*scrumena⟩ from the root of scrūtor (“to search”) and scrōtum.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler finds it first in Plautus,^[8] where twenty minae are said to be in a purse, and a purse is hung round a person's neck.^[2][3] It means a small money bag worn round the neck.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Gellius quotes the jurist Labeo on a slave carrying a purse full of coins.^[3][2] Horace and Juvenal use it of money itself, as in nōn dēficiente crumēnā, “while the purse does not run dry”.^[2][6][4] Medieval writers use it of a money bag and more widely of a money chest or coffer.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a purse.^[2][8]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of a supply of money.^[2][8]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius quotes Labeo on a purse full of coins.^[3][2][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small money bag, purse, usually hung round the neck.^[2][6]
2. (figurative) A supply of money, funds.^[2][6]
3. (Medieval Latin) A money chest, coffer.^[9]

Word family

• crumēniseca

Related words

• saccus
• bursa

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
9. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften