groma

Forms

grōma f (genitive grōmae); first declension^[1] Also grūma, the spelling of Nonius and the glossaries;^[2][3] croma occurs twice in the surveyor Nipsus.^[2][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek γνώμων (gnṓmōn),^[4][5][2] the name Festus says the Greeks gave to the instrument.^[2] The TLL holds that the Etruscans borrowed the Greek word first and the Romans took it from them.^[2] Walde, Georges, Köbler and Wiktionary give the Greek source as γνῶμα (gnôma), which Walde equates with ⟨gnṓmōn⟩,^[6][7][8][1] and Walde explains the vowel /u/ of the spelling ⟨gruma⟩ by the influence of dēgrūmō “to level” and grūmus “mound”.^[6] Köbler traces the Greek word to Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- (“to know”).^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest instance may be in a speech of Scipio Aemilianus, quoted by Gellius, where Madvig's emendation gives grumam statuere “to set up the groma” on the highest spot.^[4][2] Festus describes it as a small device by which the directions of a field can be found.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

It was the surveyor's instrument for laying out straight lines,^[4][2] and the writers on land surveying and on the laying out of camps describe how it was set up.^[2][7] From the place where it was planted, the word came to mean the centre of a camp or colony, where the four main roads met.^[2][3][10] From it comes grōmaticus “of land surveying”.^[2][1]

In medieval Latin Du Cange records it as a kind of measure.^[11]

Timeline

• 2nd half of the 2nd century AD – Festus, in Paul's epitome, describes the instrument and gives its Greek name.^[2][3][8]
• end of the 4th or beginning of the 5th century AD – Nonius explains grumae as the central places where four straight roads meet.^[2][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. (surveying) An instrument for taking bearings and laying out straight lines, a surveyor's groma.^[4][2][7]
2. The centre of a camp or colony, where the main roads meet.^[2][3][10]
3. (Medieval Latin) A kind of measure.^[11]

Word family

• gromaticus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
6. ^ a b Walde, Alois (1906), Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
7. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
9. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
10. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
11. ^ a b du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre