mentum

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈmɛn.tũː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈmɛn.tum]^[1]

Forms

mentum n (genitive mentī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *mn̥to-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *mn̥-to- (“chin, mouth”), perhaps an old adjective “protruding” from a root *men- “to rise up, project” seen in ēmineō and prōmineō.^[2][1][3] Cognate with Welsh mant (“mouth, jaw”), Gothic 𐌼𐌿𐌽𐌸𐍃 (munþs, “mouth”) and Old English mūþ (“mouth”).^[2] Lewis and Short compare minae “threats”, originally “projections”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus.^[2][5] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It was the chin of people and animals, and also the chin with its beard, as Cicero's statue of Hercules whose chin was a little worn by kisses.^[3][4][6] The phrase mentum alicui tollere “to hold up someone's chin” meant to help someone out of trouble, a metaphor from swimming.^[3] In architecture it was a projecting edge of a cornice, in Vitruvius.^[3]

It survives in Italian mento, and a Vulgar Latin *mentōne gave French menton “chin”.^[1] Zoology took English mentum for part of an insect's lower lip.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero speaks of the chin of a statue of Hercules.^[6][4][5]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of the edge of a cornice.^[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The chin; the chin with its beard.^[3][4]
2. (architecture) A projecting edge.^[3]

Word family

• mentīgō
• mentō
• mentāgra
• mentālis

Related words

• minae
• mōns
• ēmineō

Usage notes

Festus records another mentum, meaning commentum “invention”, from the root of comminīscor.^[3][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.