Etymologically
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minium

Etymology and origin of the Latin word minium

History Permalink
Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
Furius Bibaculus
Borrowed from
Iberian
Ultimate origin
Iberian
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin minium
English miniature

Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈmɪ.ni.ũː][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈmiː.ni.um][1]

Forms

minium n (genitive miniī or minī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Iberian, a word from Spain.[2][3][4] Wiktionary connects it with the name of the river Minius in Spain, and Isidore says the pigment gave its name to a river there.[1][5] Virgil quoted by Quintilian has a cut form min.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first source is Furius Bibaculus (1st century BC).[7]

Semantic evolution

It meant a bright red pigment, properly native cinnabar, sulphide of mercury, as Propertius' Hiberum minium, “Spanish cinnabar”.[2][6] It was also red lead, as in Pliny and Vitruvius.[6]

Virgil's Pan is red with minium, and Tibullus' farmer painted with it.[4] Isidore says the Greeks first found it at Ephesus, but Spain had more than any other region.[5] English minium is a borrowing.[1]

Timeline

  • 1st century BC – Furius Bibaculus uses it.[7]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil describes Pan red with minium.[4][7]
  • 57/46–12 BC – Propertius speaks of Spanish cinnabar.[6][7]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder writes of red lead.[6][7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Cinnabar; vermilion.[2][1]
  2. Red lead, minium.[6][1]

Word family

  • mineus
  • miniāceus
  • miniārius
  • miniō
  • minius
  • English minium

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  5. ^ a b Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
  6. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de

Descendants

Cite this entry

“Minium.” Etymologically, 15 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/minium. Accessed 15 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·