Etymologically
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dumus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈduː.mʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈduː.mus][1]

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

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