flumineus

Forms

flūmineus (feminine flūminea, neuter flūmineum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin flūmen (“river”) + -eus, “of a river”.^[2][1][3] The noun flūmen is formed from fluō (“to flow”),^[1] which de Vaan traces to Proto-Indo-European *bʰleuH- (“to flow (over)”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Ovid,^[5][3] who uses it of the swan as the “river bird”.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

The word belongs to poetry:^[7] Ovid, Lucan, Statius, Silius and later poets use it of river water and waves, of sedge, elms and alders growing by the water, and of river birds.^[7][3] Silius applies it to a fleet built for crossing a river.^[7] In the writings of the land surveyors the neuter plural flūminea is a noun for the ground a river takes up.^[3][8]

Sedulius calls the baptism of Christ a flūmineum lavācrum.^[3] Medieval writers used it for what belongs to a river and for animals living in or by rivers,^[9] and British glossaries explain it with Old English words for floods and waters.^[10]

Timeline

• 43 BC–AD 18 – Ovid uses it of the swan and of river water.^[3][5]
• 25–101 AD – Silius uses it of a fleet for crossing a river.^[7][5]
• 1st half of the 5th century AD – Sedulius uses it of the baptism of Christ.^[3][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a river; in or beside a river.^[2][7]
2. Living in or by a river.^[6][9]
3. (neuter plural as noun, land surveying) The ground taken up by a river.^[8][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
10. ^ 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