cucumis

Forms

cucumis m (genitive cucumeris or cucumis); third declension^[1] Pliny the Elder also inflects it as an i-stem: accusative cucumin or cucumim, genitive cucumis, dative and ablative cucumi, accusative plural cucumis.^[2][3] The grammarian Caper rejected a nominative cucumer,^[3] which is common in Medieval Latin.^[4]

Etymology

It is probably a loanword from a non-Indo-European language.^[5][6] De Vaan suggests an original form like ⟨kuku(m)-⟩ and compares Ancient Greek κύκυον (kúkuon) and σίκυον (síkuon);^[5][7] Wiktionary considers it a wanderword, perhaps ultimately from Sumerian ukuš₂ (“cucumber”) or a Mediterranean substrate.^[1]

Varro derived it from ⟨curvor⟩ “crookedness”, as if the cucumbers had been called ⟨curvimeres⟩.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on,^[5][6] meaning a cucumber: in the Casina one speaker asks another “was it a radish? … a cucumber?” (num radix fuit? … num cucumis?).^[2]

Semantic evolution

Varro, Virgil, Columella and Pliny the Elder use it of the cultivated plant and its fruit,^[9][3] and with an epithet (cucumis anguinus, cucumis silvester) of the squirting cucumber.^[2][3] Wiktionary notes that the cucumber of Roman Italy was mostly the snake melon, a kind of Cucumis melo.^[1] Pliny also uses it of a marine creature like a cucumber in colour and smell.^[2][9] Diocletian's price edict lists cucumbers of the first quality,^[3] and the Vulgate has it in the Book of Numbers.^[3]

In Medieval Latin, usually as cucumer, it named the garden cucumber and, with an epithet, the wild cucumber;^[4][1] a medieval physician notes that cucumbers do not grow in cold lands.^[4] It survives in Italian cocomero.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it in the Casina.^[2][6]
• 116–27 BC – Varro names the cucumis anguinus.^[3][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it in the Georgics.^[10][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it for a sea creature.^[2][6]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it in the Book of Numbers.^[3][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cucumber or melon, the plant or its fruit.^[2][1]
2. cucumis anguinus, cucumis silvester: the squirting cucumber.^[2]
3. A marine animal resembling a cucumber.^[2][9]
4. (Medieval Latin, New Latin) The garden cucumber.^[1][4]

Word family

• cucumerāceus
• cucumerārium
• cucumerifōrmis
• cucumifōrmis

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. ^ a b c d e f g h Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c d 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
5. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ Marcus Terentius Varro, De lingua Latina (text of The Latin Library; book and paragraph numbers as there).
9. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier