lembus

Forms

lembus m (genitive lembī); second declension^[1] Manuscripts also have limbus and lymbus.^[2] It is occasionally feminine, and the glossaries have a feminine lemba.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek λέμβος (lémbos, “a small boat”).^[3][4][5] The Greek word is perhaps of Illyrian origin.^[1][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found first in Plautus,^[6] who has lembo advehitur tuus pater pauxillulo, “your father is coming in a tiny boat”.^[4][7]

Semantic evolution

It is a small, fast boat with a sharp prow,^[3][4] used of a fisherman's boat in Accius,^[4] and as a light warship: Livy writes of a fleet of them,^[4] and Curtius of pirate boats.^[4] Virgil has a simile of a man who can barely drive his boat against the current with oars.^[4] Döderlein groups it with celox and liburna as boats that could be manned and armed for war, unlike the skiffs scapha, cymba and linter.^[8] Fulgentius explains it as a very fast small ship, also called dromo.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a small boat.^[6][4]
• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius uses it of a fisherman's boat.^[4][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it in a simile in the Georgics.^[4][6]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy writes of a fleet of lembī.^[4][6]
• 1st century AD – Curtius writes of pirate boats.^[4][6]
• c. 500 AD – Fulgentius explains it as a fast boat also called dromo.^[4][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small, fast-sailing boat with a sharp prow; a cutter, pinnace, also used as a light warship.^[3][4][1]

Word family

• lembulus

Related words

• celox
• liburna

Usage notes

The OLD and the TLL have a second lembus, a variant of limbus;^[3][2] Niermeyer records it in Medieval Latin.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
9. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill