Etymologically
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demum

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈdeː.mũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈdɛː.mum][1]

Forms

dēmum (not comparable)[1] Livius Andronicus and Plautus have the form dēmus.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is an old superlative of dē (“down from”), like prīmus and īmus, meaning “last, farthest”, with the neuter used as an adverb.[2][4][5][1] De Vaan traces dē to the particle Proto-Indo-European *de (“here”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Livius Andronicus, who has dēmus.[4][6]

Semantic evolution

With expressions of time dēmum marks something that happens late, “at last, only then” (tum dēmum, nunc dēmum).[2][3] After other possibilities have been excluded it means “only, alone, and no other” (is dēmum, “he and no one else”), and at the end of a process “in the end, eventually” (Plautus: condemned at last, he paid back 1,200).[2][1]

Church Latin glosses it “at last, finally, just, only, precisely”,[7] and medieval Latin “at last”.[8]

Timeline

  • 280/260–before 200 BC – Livius Andronicus has dēmus.[4][6]
  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.[2][6]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. At last, only then, not until.[2][3][1][7]
  2. Only, alone, and no other.[2][1][7]
  3. In the end, eventually, finally.[2][1][8]

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill