Etymologically
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lympha

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈlym.pʰa][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈlim.fa][1]

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

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