grumus

Forms

grūmus m (genitive grūmī); second declension^[1] The spelling grummus occurs in Accius.^[2]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[3][2] De Vaan takes it as inherited from Proto-Italic *grōmo- (“heap”), which he traces to Proto-Indo-European *h₂ǵr-ōm-o-, and connects it with gremium (from a root ⟨*grem-⟩) and with Old Church Slavonic ⟨gramada⟩ “heap, pile”.^[3] The change of /ōm/ to /ūm/ would be the same as in hūmānus.^[3] Wiktionary compares Proto-Slavic *gromada (“pile”).^[1]

The OLD instead compares Ancient Greek γρυμέα (gruméa) and γρύτη (grútē) and English crumb, as the TLL does.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in a tragedy of Accius (170–c. 90 BC),^[5][3] spelled grummus, in a line about whatever mound or sheer ridge the speaker had stood on.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Festus, as abridged by Paulus, defined it as a gathering of earth smaller than a tumulus.^[2][6] It was used of natural hillocks, of mounds of earth heaped over primitive dwellings, and in an inscription of a grave mound.^[2] In the Moretum it is applied to small heaps of dough.^[2]

It survives as Italian grumo.^[7]

Timeline

• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius uses it, spelled grummus, for a mound.^[2][5]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius describes great mounds of earth heaped over dwellings.^[2][5]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it in his work on farming.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A heap of earth, mound, hillock.^[2][6]
2. A grave mound.^[2]
3. Any small heap, as of dough.^[2]

Word family

• dēgrūmō
• grūmulus
• multigrūmus

Related words

• gremium

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier