geminus

Forms

geminus (feminine gemina, neuter geminum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] Plautus coins a comic superlative geminissumus.^[2]

Etymology

It is probably inherited from Proto-Italic *jemno- (“paired”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *yemH-no- (“paired, connected”).^[3][1] The comparison rests on the meaning and on Old Irish emon (“twin”), which keeps the initial /j/, Latin would then have taken its /g/ from gignō (“to beget”).^[3][1] The OLD calls the origin doubtful.^[2]

Cognate with Sanskrit यम (yamá, “twin”), Avestan yə̄ma (“twin”) and Latvian jumis (“pair”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Naevius.^[3][4] Plautus has hodiē illa pariet fīliōs geminōs duōs, “today she will give birth to twin sons”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Geminus is first “born at the same birth, twin”; as a noun geminī are twins (Pacuvius, Cicero).^[2][5] From this it means “identical, alike” (Pacuvius: gemina cōnfīdentia), in the plural “two together, a pair of” (Terence: geminās nūptiās, a double wedding), “twofold, double”, and of composite creatures such as the Centaurs “of double nature”.^[2][1]

Timeline

• c. 235–200 BC – Naevius uses it.^[3][4]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: fīliōs geminōs duōs.^[2][4]
• 220–130 BC – Pacuvius: salvēte, geminī.^[2][4]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of the double-natured Centaurs.^[2][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Twin, twin-born.^[2][5][1]
2. (as noun, plural) Twins.^[2]
3. Like, identical, similar.^[2][1]
4. (plural) Two together, a pair of.^[2]
5. Twofold, double.^[2][1]
6. Of double nature.^[2]

Word family

• bigeminus
• gemellus
• geminitūdō
• gemipomus
• trigeminus
• quadrigeminus
• centumgeminus
• geminātim
• geminī
• geminō
• septemgeminus
• tergeminus

Related words

• congeminātiō
• congeminō
• geminātiō
• ingeminō
• trigeminō
• gignō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press