Etymologically
Log in

humo

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 03:44. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈhʊ.moː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈuː.mo][1]

Forms

humō (present infinitive humāre, perfect active humāvī, supine humātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin humus (“earth, ground”) + -ō.[2][1] De Vaan traces humus to Proto-Italic *χomo- and Proto-Indo-European *dʰǵʰ-ōm (“earth”), comparing Oscan húnttram (“who is below”); the TLL compares Ancient Greek χθών (khthṓn, “earth”).[3][4] Cicero explained the word from the bodies laid in the earth and covered with soil.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Varro,[3] who says a dead man is buried who is covered with earth.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to bury, inter.[2] Cicero notes that what was properly said of those covered with earth was by his time said of all the dead, and so it came to mean disposing of a body by any rite.[2] He also tells of a man who buried an unknown corpse he found lying unburied.[5] Lewis & Short call it rare but classical.[5] Döderlein says it means laying in the earth, the last part of a burial, unlike sepeliō, the proper term for the whole rite.[6] Church Latin glosses it to bury, inter.[7]

Timeline

  • 116–27 BC – Varro of burial in the earth.[2][3][8]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero on the word and its wider use.[2][5][8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To cover with earth, bury, inter.[2][5][1][7]
  2. To dispose of a body by any rite; to perform funeral rites.[2][1]

Word family

  • circumhumatus
  • humātiō
  • humātor
  • inhumātus
  • inhumō
  • obhumo

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c 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 e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de