Etymologically
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hemina

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [heːˈmiː.na][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [eˈmiː.na][1]

Forms

hēmīna f (genitive hēmīnae); first declension[1] Also written ēmīna,[2][3] and in manuscripts haem-, him- or hym-.[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἡμίνα (hēmína, “half-measure”),[5][1][6] which Köbler connects with ἡμι- (hēmi-, “half”) and Proto-Indo-European *sēmi- (“half”).[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Plautus, who has it once, and Cato,[4] who uses it for wine;[2] the Plautus passage, in the Miles gloriosus, is also of wine.[3]

Semantic evolution

It is a measure of half a sextarius for liquids and also for dry goods:[5][2] Celsus measures water, oil, vinegar and wheat by it, and Seneca blood.[3] Persius has the unjust heminae, false measuring vessels, broken by an aedile.[5][3] The TLL notes it as the Latin for the Greek cotyla.[4] British medieval texts use it for a liquid measure: Gildas' penitential prescribes a Roman hemina of milk, and a monastic customary cites the Rule of Saint Benedict on a hemina of wine a day.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of wine.[3][4][6]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato, of a wine ration.[2][6]
  • 14–37 AD – Celsus, of water, oil and wheat.[3][6]
  • 34–62 AD – Persius, of measuring vessels.[5][6]
  • Medieval Latin – A liquid measure of wine or milk in monastic rules.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A measure for liquids or dry goods, half a sextārius.[5][2][1]
  2. A vessel holding one hemina.[5]
  3. (Medieval Latin) A liquid measure, perhaps about half a pint.[7]

Word family

  • hēmīnārium

Usage notes

Hēmina was also the cognomen of the historian Lucius Cassius Hemina.[2][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  4. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b c 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