lympha

Forms

lympha f (genitive lymphae); first declension^[1] Varro has a Greek genitive plural lymphōn.^[2] Inscriptions also spell it lumpha and lumpa, and manuscripts lymfa.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek νύμφη (númphē, “bride; nymph”), apparently with dissimilation of the consonants.^[2][1][4] Following Wackernagel, the Thesaurus takes the old form to be ⟨lumpa⟩, with /n/ changed to /l/, and the spellings with ⟨y⟩ and ⟨ph⟩ to be later Greek-looking forms.^[3] Etymonline also takes it as a variant of ⟨lumpae⟩ “waters” altered after the Greek word.^[5] Varro explained it from the slippery gliding of water, and also from ⟨Nympha⟩.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first source is Pacuvius.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In Varro it is a water goddess, a nymph, to whom he prays because farming is dry and wretched without water.^[2] In poetry it is water, especially the clear water of rivers and springs, as Virgil's “sprinkle the body with river water”.^[2][6] Döderlein calls it merely a poetic word for water.^[7] Lewis & Short also record it of the water of dropsy.^[6]

Church Latin glosses it “water”.^[8]

Timeline

• 220–130 BC – Pacuvius.^[4]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of a water nymph.^[2][4]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of river water.^[2][4]
• 1620s – Borrowed into English as lymph “pure water”, later in physiology.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A water nymph.^[2]
2. (poetic) Water, clear spring or river water.^[2][6][1]
3. The water in dropsy.^[6][1]

Word family

• limpidus
• lymphaceus
• lymphō

Related words

• lymphāticus
• lymphātiō
• lymphātus
• lymphor
• nympha
• English lymph

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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson