dumus

Forms

dūmus m (genitive dūmī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *dū̆smo-.^[2] Livius Andronicus has an older adjective ⟨dusmo⟩, which the epitome of Festus by Paul the Deacon explains by dūmōsus (“bushy”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan's only certain cognate is Old Irish dos (“shrub”), from a shared stem ⟨*dus-⟩ with no further connections.^[2] The OLD and the TLL compare Middle High German zūsach (“brushwood”), but de Vaan doubts that the Germanic words belong here.^[3][4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Livius Andronicus,^[2] whose adjective ⟨dusmo⟩ is quoted by Paul the Deacon.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

It is a thorn or briar bush, mostly in the plural dūmī, thickets of bushes;^[3][2] the singular is found apparently only in Ovid.^[3][2] Cicero and Virgil use it often.^[5][2] Döderlein distinguishes dūmī, bushes growing thickly together like a wilderness, from sentēs, prickly bushes that wound, while vepres joins both ideas.^[6] In medieval Latin it is a field overgrown with thistles.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 280–200 BC – Livius Andronicus has the old adjective dusmo.^[2][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of brambles.^[5][2][8]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil.^[5]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses the singular.^[3][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A thorn bush, briar, bramble;^[3][5][1] (plural) thickets.^[3][5][1]
2. (Medieval Latin) A field overgrown with thistles.^[7]

Word family

• dumalis
• dumesco
• dūmētum
• dumicola
• dūmōsus

Related words

• vepres
• sentis

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de