cumulus

Forms

cumulus m (genitive cumulī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is probably inherited from Proto-Italic *kumo-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ḱuh₁-mo- (“heap”).^[2] De Vaan compares Ancient Greek κῦμα (kûma, “wave; foetus, sprout”).^[2][3] Schrijver doubts the link with the root *ḱuH- "to swell" because of the short ⟨u⟩, but de Vaan notes that it could come from a shortening of a pretonic long vowel, or from analogy with tumulus (“mound”).^[2] He notes that the verb cumulō is attested well before the noun.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Lucilius, who mentions a basket with a deceptive heap on top.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

It is a heap, pile or mound, also of water, a wave.^[3] It is a mass or accumulation, as Cicero's great mass of debt, and an addition or increase: Cicero speaks of extra days of thanksgiving granted as an honour.^[3] From this comes the sense of a finishing touch or crown, and of the highest point: Ovid has a crowning disgrace, and Cicero speaks of the peak of praise.^[3] Quintilian says that some call the peroration of a speech cumulus.^[3] The TLL finds it absent from Catullus and Lucretius.^[4] In Medieval Latin it can mean a sum of money and the ridge of a roof.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius of a heaped basket.^[3][4][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a mass of debt and of extra honours.^[3][6]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian of the peroration.^[3][6]
• 1650s – English cumulus is borrowed for a heap; the use for a cloud comes later.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A heap, pile, mound; a heaped-up wave.^[3][8][9][1]
2. An accumulation, mass; a total amount.^[3]
3. An addition, surplus, increase.^[3][1]
4. The finishing touch, crown; the highest point, summit; in rhetoric, the peroration.^[3][1]
5. (Medieval Latin) A sum of money; the ridge of a roof.^[5]

Word family

• cumulō

Related words

• English cumulus

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes it from acervus and congeries, heaps of things piled up: cumulus is strictly not the heap itself but the top that completes it, as in cumulō.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
10. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper