merum

Forms

merum n (genitive merī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is the neuter of merus (“pure, unmixed”), used as a noun.^[2][1] De Vaan traces the adjective to Proto-Italic *mero- and Proto-Indo-European *merH-o- (“remaining, pure”), and follows Puhvel in comparing Hittite marri (“just so, gratuitously”); the old comparison with Ancient Greek μαρμαίρω (marmaírō, “to sparkle”), which the OLD keeps beside Old English āmerian (“to purify”), seems to him unnecessary.^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus, Curculio, of a man who would drown himself in neat wine (ingurgitāre sē in merum).^[4] De Vaan records the related merobibus, “drinker of neat wine”, in Plautus.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Merum is wine not mixed with water;^[2][4] Lewis & Short note that the word is poetic and post-Augustan in prose.^[2][4] It often implies heavy drinking: Propertius' Centaurs carried off Ischomache in the middle of their wine, and Quintilian says Cicero would reproach Antony with merum et vomitum, “neat wine and vomiting”.^[2][4] Poets also use it for the juice inside the grape (Ovid, Martial).^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “wine”.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of drowning in neat wine.^[4][6]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it.^[4][6]
• 57/46–12 BC – Propertius of the Centaurs' wine.^[2][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Unmixed wine, neat wine.^[2][1][4][5]
2. Wine-drinking.^[2]
3. (poetic) The juice of the grape.^[2]

Word family

• merācus
• merobibus

Related words

• merus

Usage notes

Medieval Latin had a separate merum, perhaps from Greek, meaning a territory or pale.^[7][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b 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 d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill