cubus

Forms

cubus m (genitive cubī); second declension^[1] Also spelled cybus and, in Ausonius, coebus.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek κύβος (kúbos, “die, cube”).^[2][3][5][6] Pokorny and Köbler connect the Greek word with Proto-Indo-European *keub- (“to bend”), the root they also see in cubitum “elbow” and cubō “to lie”;^[7][5] Etymonline calls its origin uncertain and reports Beekes' remark that words for dice are often borrowed.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Varro.^[5] Vitruvius defines it as a body bounded by six square faces of equal size, corpus ex lateribus aequālī lātitūdine plānitiārum perquadrātum, and tells how the Pythagoreans wrote their teachings in units of 216 lines, a cubic number.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Beside the geometrical cube, Ovid uses it in his work on cosmetics of a lump or measure of myrrh,^[2][4] and Gellius of a cubic number.^[2][9]

Medieval scholars kept both mathematical senses: Gerbert of Aurillac describes a solid foot as having the shape of a cube or die,^[10] and Adalbold of Utrecht explains that 8 and 27 are cubes.^[10] It also meant a die thrown in games,^[10] and figuratively something perfectly solid: a life of Dunstan calls him a most solid cube of faith and truth.^[11] English took ⟨cube⟩ in the 1550s, from French and directly from Latin.^[8]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it.^[5]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius defines the cube.^[2][3][5]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a lump of myrrh.^[2][5]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it of a cubic number.^[2][5]
• 983–997 – Gerbert of Aurillac uses it in his geometry.^[10][5]
• 1550s – English borrows cube.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cube, a solid with six equal square faces.^[2][9]
2. A lump; a measure.^[2][4]
3. A cubic number.^[2][9]
4. (Medieval Latin) A die used in games.^[10]
5. (Medieval Latin, figurative) A model of firmness or perfection.^[10][11]

Word family

• cubicus

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
7. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
8. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e f Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
11. ^ 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