libamen

Forms

lībāmen n (genitive lībāminis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin lībō (“to pour a libation”) + -men.^[2][1] De Vaan follows Steinbauer in taking lībō as a verb made from lībum (“sacrificial cake”), which he traces to Proto-Italic *leifo- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂le/oibʰ-o-, cognate with Ancient Greek ἀλείφω (aleíphō, “to anoint”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler and the TLL find it first in Virgil,^[4][5] who in the Aeneid has bristles laid on the sacred fire as the first offering, lībāmina prīma.^[6][5]

Semantic evolution

It was a poetic word for an offering poured or laid out for the gods, above all of wine, and is mostly found in the plural;^[2][6] L&S calls it the poetic form of lībāmentum.^[6] The TLL finds it in verse from Virgil on and in prose only from Paulus' epitome of Festus and Apuleius.^[5] Statius used it of what was thrown on a funeral pyre,^[6] and Silius Italicus of the first fruits of war or of plunder.^[2] Ovid used it figuratively for the first taste of a thing.^[2][6]

In Christian Latin the Vulgate uses it for the drink offerings of the Mosaic law,^[6] and Stelten glosses it as a libation or drink offering.^[7]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses lībāmina of the first offering laid on a sacrificial fire.^[6][5][4]
• 43 BC–AD 18 – Ovid uses it of offerings and, figuratively, of a first taste.^[2][6]
• 25–101 AD – Silius Italicus speaks of the first fruits of war.^[2]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it of the drink offerings of the Old Testament.^[6][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. An offering to the gods, especially of wine; a libation, an oblation (usually plural).^[2][6]
2. The first fruits (of war, plunder and the like).^[2]
3. (figurative) The first taste or enjoyment of something.^[2][6]
4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A drink offering.^[6][7]

Usage notes

Ovid derived lībāmina and lība from the name of the god Liber, because part of them is given from there to the sacred hearths.^[5] In manuscripts the word is sometimes confused with lība and lībātiō.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson