messis

Forms

messis f (genitive messis); third declension^[1] The accusative is usually messem, less often messim, as in Cato, Plautus and Varro.^[2][3] Lucilius makes it masculine.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from metō (“to reap, mow”) with the noun suffix ⟨-tis⟩.^[1][2][4] De Vaan derives ⟨metō⟩ from Proto-Italic *met-e- (“to reap”) and Proto-Indo-European *met-e- (“to measure”), cognate with Welsh medi (“to mow, harvest”) and Lithuanian mẽtas (“year, time”); the root etymology is disputed.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cato has the accusative messim in the De agri cultura,^[3] and Plautus speaks of sickles given “for the harvest, I suppose” in the Poenulus.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is the reaping of crops, the harvest, also as a time of year, as Virgil's “by the hearth if it is cold, in the shade at harvest time”, and as a yearly event marking time, as Catullus' poem of Cinna published nine harvests after it was begun.^[2][3][1] Concretely it is the ripe grain, growing or reaped, the crop, as Plautus' “when the corn harvest is largest elsewhere”.^[2][3]

Church Latin glosses it “crop, harvest”.^[6] In Medieval Latin it is also the standing crop, corn, and a payment due in corn.^[7]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato has messim.^[3][4]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of sickles for the harvest.^[2][4]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus counts years by harvests.^[2][4]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of harvest time.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The harvest, reaping; harvest time; a year.^[2][3][1][6]
2. The ripe grain, crop.^[2][3][6][7]
3. (Medieval Latin) A due paid in corn.^[7]

Word family

• messuarius

Related words

• metō
• messor
• seges
• frūmentum

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 i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill