legumen

Forms

legūmen n (genitive legūminis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is usually taken as from Latin legō² (“to gather”) + -men.^[2][3][4] The derivation goes back to Varro, who says that pulses are pulled from the earth and not cut, and are named because they are gathered in this way.^[2][5] The TLL doubts it, since the narrow meaning and the ⟨-ū-⟩ are hard to explain,^[5] and Wiktionary calls the origin uncertain, noting that the word might instead be a loanword without known cognates.^[1] legō² goes back to Proto-Italic *leg-e- and Proto-Indo-European *leǵ-e/o- (“to collect”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found first in Varro, who uses it of leguminous plants and explains the name.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

It named leguminous plants and pulse, and was extended to other plants with edible seeds:^[2][6] Cicero praises the earth heavy with crops and every kind of pulse, and Virgil has the bean rattling in its pod.^[2][7] Georges notes that in its widest sense it covered any field crop eaten cooked or crushed, even barley.^[8] From the plant it passed to its fruit, the pulse itself: Caesar's soldiers did not refuse barley or pulse.^[2][7] The singular was also used collectively.^[2][8]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it means a vegetable or bean.^[9] It continues in Italian legume^[7] and was borrowed into English, first in the Latin form in Middle English and later from French as legume.^[10]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of leguminous plants.^[2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero speaks of every kind of pulse.^[2][4]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of pulse as food.^[2][4]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of the bean.^[8][4]
• 1670s – English borrows legume from French.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A leguminous plant, pulse; also other plants with edible seeds.^[2][6]
2. The fruit of such a plant, pulse; a bean.^[2][8][9]

Word family

• legūminārius

Related words

• English legume

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com