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hymen

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word hymen

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 250–184 BC, Plautus
Borrowed from
Ancient Greek ὑμήν
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek (ὑμήν)

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈhy.meːn][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈiː.men][1]

Forms

hymēn m (genitive hyminis or hymenis); third declension[1] Ovid scans the first syllable long.[2] Gaffiot records it only in the nominative and vocative.[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ὑμήν (humḗn, “wedding cry; god of weddings”).[4][5][6] Beekes treats the Greek word as distinct from its homonym meaning “membrane”;[7] Frisk held the two to be the same word, while others have proposed a Pre-Greek origin for the wedding cry.[7] Köbler also takes the cry to be probably a popular teasing call identical with the word for membrane.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Plautus, as the wedding refrain Hymen Hymenaee, o Hymen! in the Casina.[2][8]

Semantic evolution

In Latin it was the refrain chanted at weddings, joined with Hymenaee, and also the god of marriage it was personified as;[2][4] Catullus has it in his wedding songs, and Ovid uses it both of the god and of the wedding song itself.[2][5] By extension it came to mean marriage, in Ovid, Seneca and Statius.[2][4] The TLL notes that the word is used almost only by poets.[8]

In Medieval Latin it could mean a wedding or sexual union.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it as the wedding refrain.[2][6]
  • 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it in his wedding songs.[2][6]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it for the wedding song and for marriage.[2][6]
  • before 1083 – A medieval text Köbler cites uses it for a wedding or sexual union.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A refrain chanted at weddings;[2][4] (personified) Hymen, the god of marriage.[2][4]
  2. A wedding song.[5][3]
  3. Marriage, a wedding.[2][4]
  4. (Medieval Latin) Wedding; sexual union.[6]
  • hymenaeus

Usage notes

A separate word hymēn “membrane”, especially the hymen, borrowed from the Greek word for membrane, occurs in Servius' commentary on the Aeneid.[5][3][6] In British Medieval Latin it meant a caul or similar membrane.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  8. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  9. ^ 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

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Hymen.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/hymen. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

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