cyma

Forms

cȳma n (genitive cȳmatis); third declension^[1] It is also a first-declension feminine, cȳma, cȳmae.^[2][3] It is spelled cūma as well,^[4][3] and often cima, as in an inscription from Herculaneum.^[5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek κῦμα (kûma, “swell, wave, billow; fetus, embryo”),^[2][1][6] from κύω (kúō, “to be pregnant, conceive”).^[1][7] The Greek plural is κύματα (kúmata);^[1] Greek has no first-declension plural that could have been the model for the Latin feminine.^[1] Isidore of Seville explained it as if from coma (“hair”), since it is the top of vegetables or trees.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lucilius has it as a neuter, according to Nonius.^[5][3] It means the young spring shoots of a cabbage or a similar vegetable.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The grammarians debated its gender: Lucilius and Columella's poem on gardens have the neuter, while Celsus and Columella's prose have the feminine.^[5][3] Pliny the Elder describes it as a more delicate and tender stalk of the cabbage itself,^[5] and Diocletian's price edict lists the best cumae.^[3] Isidore defines it as the top of vegetables or trees,^[8] and Martianus Capella used it for a hollow sphere or layer of the cosmos.^[4]

In Medieval Latin, mostly as cima, it meant a shoot or sprout, the top of a tree and the summit of a hill or mountain,^[9][10][11] a bud, and by confusion cumin.^[10] Italian cima “top” comes from it.^[12]

Timeline

• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses the neuter for cabbage sprouts.^[5][3][7]
• 14–37 – Celsus uses it as a feminine.^[3][5][7]
• 1st century – Columella has both genders.^[5][3][7]
• 23/24–79 – Pliny the Elder describes it as the tender stalk of a cabbage.^[5][7]
• c. 560–636 – Isidore defines it as the tops of vegetables or trees.^[8][7]
• 982–983 – Walter of Speyer uses it for the top of something.^[10][7]
• 1442 – An English charter lets a tenant lop the tops of trees.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The young spring shoots of a cabbage or a similar vegetable.^[2][4][3]
2. A hollow sphere; a spherical layer.^[4]
3. (Medieval Latin) A shoot or sprout of any plant; a bud.^[10][11]
4. (Medieval Latin) The top of a tree; the summit of a hill or mountain.^[9][10]
5. (Medieval Latin) Cumin (by confusion).^[10]

Word family

• cȳmōsus
• cȳmula

Related words

• cȳmatium

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
7. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b c Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
9. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
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 c 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
12. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier