Etymologically
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geminus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈɡɛ.mɪ.nʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈd͡ʒɛː.mi.nus][1]

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
  • 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